| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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Great movie: Finney deserves an oscar
by Paul (movies profile)
Feb 24, 2008
136
of
143 people found this review helpful
This is , all in all, a wonderful movie. The story is very moving, well-told and basically historically true. The acting is excellent, especially from Albert Finney (as John Newton) and Michael (Dumbledore) Gambon (as Charles James Fox). Albert Finney ought to be nominated for the best supporting actor oscar. Although you might think that a story about the slave trade is depressing, and parts of this movie are very serious, other parts are hysterically funny.
In contrast to almost all Hollywood movies, this movie takes religion seriously, although it's not preachy about it and isn't in any way a Christian propaganda piece. People of any or no religion should like it.
The story the movie tells, of William Wilberforce and the Abolition of the Slave Trade ought to be an inspiration to all kinds of people today. The story is still relevant to issues like promoting human rights in Darfur and combatting human trafficking .
My biggest complaint is that some of the visual effects could be better. Occasionally, it's a little too obvious that the actors are in front of a blue screen or matt painting although since it's not a big budget movie that's not surprising. Also, there are (in the nature of movies) economies with the story. For example, Parliament is a single chamber with no distiction between the Commons and the Lords and there's no explanation of why Wilberforce disliked the French Revolution.
Parents ought to know that this is a hard "PG". The "n" word is used once and "bloody...." appears several times (it's a much stronger term in Britain than most Americans believe). |
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