For a film with all the stylistic panache of a BBC period yawner and all the moral ambiguity of an after-school special, Amazing Grace is a surprisingly entertaining political drama. It tells the story of British abolitionist William Wilberforce’s struggle to end the slave trade in England. Its high-minded earnestness and longsuffering main character will remind movie buffs of A Man for All Seasons and, like the Thomas Moore story, this is a serious film about conviction and the power of individuals to effect change in a world in need of redemption.
Make no mistake, Amazing Grace is not a complex movie. The good guys are good and the others aren’t so much bad as yet to become good. Such a simple and optimistic moral vision may seem antiquated, but Amazing Grace doesn’t apologize for its old-fashioned piety. As the action starts, Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) undergoes a religious conversion. Already a member of parliament, he asks several of his friends, including clergyman John Newton (Albert Finney), who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, if he should continue his political career or follow a more spiritual pursuit. At their urging, Wilberforce chooses politics and takes an unpopular stand on the issue that will dominate his political career: the slave trade.
A film with a premise like this navigates dangerous territory. No decent person today would disagree that slavery is a wicked affront to humanity but nearly all are likely to be annoyed by a character animated solely by the goodness of his bleeding heart. Nevertheless, there’s something pleasurable about watching Wilberforce’s crusade for all that is good. Whatever your religious or political beliefs, it is nice to dream of a world in which a politician is motivated by deepest convictions rather than by opinion polls, party lines, and special interest groups.
Aside from the hotly debated The Passion of The Christ, recent films with an explicitly Christian bent have been wholly unwatchable. Christian filmmakers, like those of Left Behind and The Omega Code, have gambled that any movie with the ‘right’ message – no matter how terrible and unprofessional the film – will attract the faithful in droves. That hasn’t happened. Which is what makes Amazing Grace kind of amazing. While it probably won’t attract the faithful in droves, it is likely to please the audiences it does attract, and it is certainly not terrible and unprofessional.
Indeed, the decision to hire director Michael Apted, an old Hollywood pro, and to cast the likes of Finney, Gruffudd, Michael Gambon, and Ciarán Hinds all but guarantees the film’s credibility as a worthy piece of entertainment. Likewise, screenwriter Scott Knight, last credited for the riveting Dirty Pretty Things, addsurbane intelligence to a story perpetually verging on sanctimony.
The effect is like watching a movie at war with itself. In one scene, Finney delivers a performance as raw and pained as anything onscreen all year. And in the next, the violins swell to such an absurdly high pitch it is difficult to understand the words being spoken. On one hand, it is hard not to wish the filmmakers didn’t tack an unnecessary love story onto an otherwise effective political drama. On the other, it is impossible not to acknowledge the level of craftsmanship in telling a story whose ending is never in doubt but which always manages to be surprising.
The virtues of Amazing Grace ultimately win out, but this isn’t a movie for everyone. Instead, it is a film for people who like uncomplicated, uplifting stories where good triumphs over evil and people who will buy tickets to watch their most wholesome dreams skilfully brought to life.
Matt McKillop
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