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Critics Consensus: Well-acted, solidly crafted, and all-around worthy, A United Kingdom presents an absorbing look at a singular true-life love story.
Critic Consensus: Well-acted, solidly crafted, and all-around worthy, A United Kingdom presents an absorbing look at a singular true-life love story.
All Critics (154) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (129) | Rotten (25)
Screenwriter Guy Hibbert and Asante pull off a precision balancing act, illuminating the intensity of the love the couple shared and never once allowing their romance to take a back seat to the issues.
Director Amma Asante is carving a niche for herself, making gorgeous-looking cinema from untold histories. Her best asset here is Oyelowo.
Noble but stuffy, "A United Kingdom's" good intentions suffer from its dull, predictable beats.
Oyelowo and Pike make for a convincing couple, even if the romance is the love-at-first-sight variety that requires a certain leap of faith.
Oyelowo captures Seretse's quiet dignity while also hinting at the limits of his patience. And Pike is compelling as a woman who rises to the occasion regardless of the circumstances.
Oyelowo's Seretse can both deliver a barnburner of a speech and put a gentle world of meaning into a quiet "Thank you, my love"; Pike's Ruth wears her wide-open heart on her face.
Asante's film successfully balances the personal and the political...to create a very moving insight into an almost overlooked but crucial chapter that defined the recent history of two countries.
There isn't a shred of irony here, but a sly sense of subversion as Assante places not only a little-known piece of history, but an interracial romance at that, in the bold, proud and dignified tradition British historical narratives.
A United Kingdom is remarkably dry and clichéd and fails to find much depth in this story that defied one kingdom and united another.
Oyelowo in particular is utterly at ease, a man born to leading roles.
The film takes a mild tone; it's predictable and fails to deliver the intensity and urgency of the situation and its far-reaching influence.
This story is great filmmaking, and director Asante makes the end result look and feel effortless. Her eye for detail elevates every frame, and her gentle way with actors leaves them room to do what they do best.
Despite its great performances and the relevance of the story it wants to tell, A United Kingdom is perhaps a bit too conventional to be memorable. Full review on filmotrope. com
Super Reviewer
One of my biggest pet peeves is a film that says it is "based on a true story", especially when they take a true story and completely embellish it to the point of falsehood just to make it entertaining (see: "Hidden Figures"). Here is a case of at least the entire plot being verified history. Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams Khama joined together in marriage in one of the most prominent and controversial interracial unions in the history of the Western world. They knew they were going to have to face arduous opposition from governments and even their own families, but they did it anyway. Their story exposed the absurdity of the South African apartheid regime and the de facto racism of the United Kingdom at that time. The enlightened realization that race has no genetic basis was a long time coming, and the triumphs of the Khamas and the people of Botswana played an essential role in legitimizing this truth. Then there's that guy who played Draco in the "Harry Potter" movies as a sniveling, petulant liaison to the British Ambassador of Botswana. Does that guy ever attempt a role that is out of his typecast? Obviously, the bureaucrats that exile Khama and try to keep Botswana down are jerks that deserve the bad press, but their mustache-twiddling malice constantly smacks you over the head. There's nothing subtle about who the bad racist white people are as they're characterized for maximum gumption-riling and satisfactory comeuppance. Maybe those people did have that much malice in real life, and maybe they need to tick off the audience like they do. By the consummatory ending, the film managed to gut-punch a few tears out of me, and I was willing to forgive being manipulated a bit. It's just too bad that southern Africa isn't very exciting to look at.
A universally appealing, timely, and ultimately crowd pleasing true story told with control, conviction and warmth. Great performances from the leads and larger cast, and further proof that Amma Asante is a director to treasure.
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