The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Amazing Grace

Polite under fire
By JUSTINE ELIAS  |  February 21, 2007
2.5 2.5 Stars
phxcinema#Amazing_Grace#')

Michael Apted’s stirring if conventional bio-pic of 18th-century British abolitionist William Wilberforce offers rum, funneled into anti-slavery PM William Pitt the Younger (Benedict Cumberbatch), and sugar, in the form of the hero’s adoring wife, Barbara (Romola Garai). This is polite England, so Middle Passage horrors remain veiled: slave turned memoirist Oloudaqh Equiano a/k/a “Gustavus” (Youssou N’Dour) is silenced until the end credits. As Wilberforce, Ioan Griffudd (The Fantastic Four) conveys the charisma of a righteous hero. Just how he outmaneuvers his enemies becomes a cynical surprise, especially in a bio-pic financed by fundamentalist tycoon Philip Anschutz of Walden Media. Don’t go seeking answers here as to where God is when humanity countenances atrocity; that’s for another film to deal with. Better ones, like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. For now, there’s Wilberforce exacting moral justice without going berserk.
Related: What We Do Is Secret, Review: Bronson, Review: Che, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Movies, Biopics,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

Today's Event Picks
ARTICLES BY JUSTINE ELIAS
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   PLAIN TALK  |  September 15, 2009
    Jesse Sheidlower, an editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary , an expert in slang, and the author of The F-Word , can't stop talking about fuck.
  •   HARD TIMES  |  March 24, 2009
    When last year the BBC interrupted its broadcast of Little Dorrit — which hinges on the downfall of a Bernie Madoff–like figure — for a tawdry true-crime documentary, thousands of viewers complained: don't leave us hanging!
  •   BELLE DE NUIT  |  June 16, 2008
    Belle is, as she introduces herself right up front, “a whore.” Or, if you please, “prostitute, call girl, escort, hooker, courtesan.”
  •   OSS 17: LE CAIRE NID D'ESPIONS/OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES  |  May 14, 2008
    Imagine a blithe, covertly bisexual James Bond swanning around pre-Suez Cairo in a send-up directed by the early Zucker brothers.
  •   AMAZING GRACE  |  February 21, 2007
    Michael Apted’s stirring if conventional bio-pic of 18th-century British abolitionist William Wilberforce offers rum, funneled into anti-slavery PM William Pitt the Younger, and sugar, in the form of the hero’s adoring wife, Barbara.

 See all articles by: JUSTINE ELIAS

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group