"Amazing Grace", the new film from director Michael Apted (who is, in my opinion, the most overrated director in Hollywood) saves the best for last. In fact, the scene that I can't get out of my head appears as an after-credits coda. In the scene, a bagpipe band launches into an instrumental rendition of the title song. Slowly, the camera zooms out, and drums, trumpets, and strings are added, until, as last, an entire parade of musicians are on screen playing "Amazing Grace". Then slowly, the camera pans up to Westminister Abbey, David Arnold's score swells, and we fade to black. It is a moment of genius in a film that lacks flavor. Admittedly, after a season of edgy, complex awards films, a movie that deals in morals seems tame (almost refreshingly so), by comparison. This film is well-written, and filled with classy actors and a superb crew. But somewhere along the road from script to screen, something went awry. The main problem is Ioan Gruffud. He has more than proved himself as an excellent supporting actor ("King Arthur), but he has also shown ("Fantastic Four") that he is not yet ready to assume leading-man status. He shows it again here, with an uneven performance that doesn't really get at the heart of his character, William Wilberforce, a young British politician who spent his life trying to abolish the slave trade. All movies, especially biopics, fall apart without a strong center. Another major problem is simply that Apted is trying to fit three or four movies into one. He clumsily tries to juggle Wilberforce's story, the rise and fall of ailing British prime minister Billy Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch), and the story of John Newton, a former slave ship captain who wrote the final ballad (Albert Finney, whose great performance deserved its own film). Somewhere along the line, the horrible decision was made to tell this already confusing, name-filled story out of sequence-narrated by an older Wilberforce to his wife Barbara (Romola Garai). Toby Jones and the great Ciaran Hinds are sadly typecast as upper-lip English villains who's simplicity is an insult to their talent. Michael Gambon and Rufus Sewell are serviceable in their bit parts, but the true breakout star of this film is Youssou N'Dour. N'Dour appears for maybe seven or eight minutes, but he plays the part of a freed slave with such heartbreaking brilliance that he runs away with the whole show. Also deserving special mention are David Arnold's Oscar-worthy score and Jenny Beavan's sumptuous costume design. "Amazing Grace" is not the uplifting epic that it has been promoted as, but it is a feel-good period piece that is slightly above the dung that the studios normally put out in the dead zone between winter and summer.
Review of Amazing Grace
