Starring: Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge
Director: Justin Chadwick
Rating: 3/5
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is one of the first must see biopic movies of 2014, a project that has taken producer Anant Singh years to bring to the big screen.
The movie is based on Mandela's autobiography of the same name, which chronicles his early life, coming of age, education, and 27 years in prison before becoming President and working to rebuild the country's once segregated society
Idris Elba gives a truly towering performance as Nelson Mandela - I am thrilled to see him nominated for a Golden Globe because he really does deserve this recognition.
Elba has a power and a presence in every scene that he is in and yet he is respectful of the man that he is portraying.
Having said that, this movie does not show Mandela as a saint, instead they show him as a man who has flaws and who has made mistakes throughout his life.
From the moment that you see Elba in this role, you really cannot take your eye off him - the face that he looks nothing like Mandela is totally irrelevant.
Elba really does get under the skin of this character and he shows the toll that the years of struggle took on this man.
Naomie Harris also gives a terrific performance as Winnie Mandela: who goes from a young innocent girl to a strong, angry, and hardened woman who wants to see war on the streets of her country.
This relationship is the great tragedy of this story; they were so much in love when Mandela was sent to prison, and yet they were strangers with different ideas and ideals when was released.
While this movie does boast two fantastic central performances, it fails to ever really soar. Because it is so respectful to the source material, it never really takes on a life of its own.
Don't get me wrong, this is an engaging and solid biopic, but it really does lack something emotionally - this could have something to do with the length of the story.
Long Walk To Freedom shows us the majority of Mandela's life, and yet it never really focuses in on any one part.
We never truly understand just how Mandela's lengthy incarceration impacted on him, as it is not explored.
Winnie Mandela goes on this radical character transformation, and yet we only get to see glimpses of why she became this way and made the choices that she did.
Perhaps this movie would have benefitted from telling part of the story instead of all of it.
Having said all of that, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is a movie that I really did enjoy, as it is a film that captures the unrest, fear, and desire for change that existed in South Africa at that time.
Justin Chadwick has delivered am incredibly ambitious film, but it just fails when it comes to really delivering an emotional punch.
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom is out now.
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