A United Kingdom (2016)

This story of the future President of Botswana, his white English wife, and their social and political struggles is a very good one, told well, featuring the considerable talents of David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike as Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams Khama (last blogged in Queen of Katwe and Gone Girl, respectively).

Supporting help is provided by Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith in Downton Abbey) as Ruth's sister, Jack Davenport (most recently in Kingsman: The Secret Service) as British bureaucrat Sir Canning, Jessica Oyelowo (David's real wife, she has some credits but I didn't know her face) as Lady Canning, Terry Pheto (was in the Oscar-winning Tsotsi (2005) and a L'Oréal model) as Khama's sister Naledi, and Tom Felton (last blogged for Rise of the Planet of the Apes) as another bureaucrat.

Director Amma Asante's last picture Belle was another historical drama on themes of race. The screenplay by Guy Hibbert (new to me but with plenty of credits) is based on the 2006 book Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation by Susan Williams (no relation to Ruth as far as I can tell, although the writer did grow up in Zambia and now is based in London).

The beautiful cinematography by Sam McCurdy (I'm not familiar with his work) elicits foggy London, some magnificent interiors, and sunny southern Africa in the 1940s and 50s. And Jack and I always like seeing the old cars. I liked the dresses, too, from costume design by Jenny Beavan (Oscar winner for Mad Max: Fury Road and nominatee for The King's Speech) and Anushia Nieradzik (Belle). Two notes about the dresses: 1. in a scene where Ruth was supposed to be pregnant, she wore a dress that had appeared in an early scene and her defined (un-pregnant) waist peeked out by her elbow (I submitted this item to imdb's goofs and it was accepted) and 2. I just loved Lady Canning's dress in one of the last scenes on a patio. It had thin stripes. I can't find a photo.

As I write I am streaming the entire soundtrack by Patrick Doyle (last in these pages for Cinderella). As Ruth and Seretse met listening to jazz, there are a lot of big band songs, some of which are listed here. And watch for the village women singing about halfway through. Apparently the extras broke into song spontaneously and it's marvelous.

Definitely playing in these parts for another week, this movie's averages are 84 critics and 82 audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Take the time to see it on the big screen.