I often find period pieces a little distant, and particularly British costume dramas. Something happens between the middle ages and the 20th century where the gender roles and obsession with class and status mean nothing to me. I also think frilly dresses are ugly, so sue me. Belle falls in that zone, the late 1700s and in England, but it has something that unites its story with modern day Fred. Belle reminds us that the U.S. and England both share an unfortunate history of slavery.
Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is the child of a Royal Navy Admiral (Matthew Goode) and a slave. She lives with Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and her cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon), who treat her equally unless guests come over and they just can’t explain why a black woman is dining with them. Both Dido and Elizabeth are at the age when women of the era marry off and secure their futures, and Elizabeth hopes to be betrothed to James Ashford (Tom Felton), who looks down on Dido for purely prejudiced reasons. Dido considers his brother Oliver (James Norton) but something way more interesting than 18th Century dating is happening simultaneously.
Lord Mansfield is judging the Zong ship trial in which a slave ship drowned their slaves in the ocean and claimed an insurance payout for loss of cargo. If Mansfield judges in favor of the slavers, then it would set a precedent for classifying human beings as cargo that can be valued with a dollar amount. If he judges in favor of the insurance company, it would actually set the precedent that human life can’t be monetized, and maybe slavery as a product isn’t justifiable. Slavery is unconscionable morally but it took hundreds of years to convince the world of that. By following the case, Dido becomes as politically active as a woman of her time could, and falls in love with an anti-slavery advocate John Davinier (Sam Reid).
Amid the suffocating social customs and the historical sea change looming, Dido and Elizabeth still have the same insecurities and motivations as any young women. Belle’s story is universal in that regard. People want love and a place in the world. To paraphrase Lt. Frank Drebin, no matter how silly the idea of marrying for status seems to us, as Americans we must be gracious and considerate viewers. My heart aches for Dido and Elizabeth being sucked into that social paradigm, and this was one of the most progressive families of the century.
Belle does a great job explaining the historical case of the Zong ship trial as a piece of drama, the way Lord Mansfield has to hear it from both sides even on his days off. The issue of slavery is layered in subtly, so it’s never a lecture about how things were in 18th century England. We learn how the Mansfields treat their help, and how that’s different from others at the time, but it’s graceful, not a soapbox.
The film maybe shoehorns it around Dido’s life as biopics tend to do. I’m no historian. For all I know, the events of Belle did adhere exactly to the timeframe depicted, but it seems to end up at the real aftermath a bit too tidily. I still felt a bit of that distance from 18th century life, but that’s on me. Their dialogue is a little more complex to decipher than casual modern language, but it’s not inaccessible, just a little reminder that this isn’t my world. Belle is as well done as any Jane Austen movie, and the stuff with the Ashfords is total Pride and Prejudice. Fans of those stories will be treated to the added layer of progress for race relations.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
