The Woman King
Viola Davis heads an impressive cast in a story of the real-life female warriors of the kingdom of Dahomey in a rather artificial rendering.
Warrior class: Viola Davis
Actually, Nanisca is not a king: the title is a spoiler. But then there is something woefully ‘packaged’ about this attempt to place an army of black actresses at the centre of a big American actioner. It was the white actress Maria Bello who stumbled across the Agojie, an all-female regiment of Beninese warriors known for their martial ferocity. Active since the 1600s, the so-called ‘African Amazons’ appealed to Bello as the unique basis for a film at a time when women and African-American women in particular were finally finding a cinematic voice. Here, her story – which she co-wrote with the scenarist Dana Stevens – focuses on the fearsome General Nanisca (Viola Davis) who, in 1823, trains a new battalion of female soldiers in preparation for an onslaught on the neighbouring Oyo Empire, which had abducted their own women as slaves. The training regime is brutal, but a new 19-year-old recruit, Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), proves to be more than up to the task…
As Nawi, the South African Mbedu is a major discovery in the nominal lead, a 31-year-old playing a 19-year-old who looks 14. Besides the many scenes of combat requiring her to perform Herculean feats of athleticism – and, in one scene, to clamber through a thicket of needle-like thorns – she has to vie with the mighty Viola Davis for the acting honours. Both are well supported by Lashana Lynch and Sheila Atim as fellow Agojie, as well as by an impressive John Boyega as the noble (and remarkably handsome) real-life King Ghezo.
If the film fails to engage or exhilarate, it is through no fault of its actors, although the Chippendale-ready Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Jordan Bolger as a pair of Portuguese slavers are spectacular drawbacks. What the film lacks is a sense of place (even though it was filmed in Benin and South Africa), with the royal enclosure looking every inch the Hollywood set. Further dampening the excitement is Terence Blanchard’s conventional score, in spite of a few ethnic flourishes, although the dance sequences do add considerable flavour. Had the director Gina Prince-Bythewood devoted more of the film’s 135-minute running time to some local detail, she might have created a more credible world.
There’s one promising moment when Nawi stoops down to select a stone from a stream to sharpen her sword, when she’s distracted by the ludicrously buff (naked) figure of Jordan Bolger, who’s having a private dip. These tawdry intrusions detract from the authenticity that the subject so desperately craves. And in spite of the blood and grisly sound effects, The Woman King feel strangely sanitised, making one question its 15 certificate (it’s a PG-13 in the States). There are far more violent 12A films around. Ultimately, then, one senses a missed opportunity here, a vibrant page of African history reduced to Hollywood formula.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, John Boyega, Jayme Lawson, Adrienne Warren, Masali Baduza, Jordan Bolger, Jimmy Odukoya, Angelique Kidjo, Julian Tennon.
Dir Gina Prince-Bythewood, Pro Cathy Schulman, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon and Maria Bello, Screenplay Dana Stevens, from a story by Maria Bello and Dana Stevens, Ph Polly Morgan, Pro Des Akin McKenzie, Ed Terilyn A. Shropshire, Music Terence Blanchard, Costumes Gersha Phillips, Dialect coach Joel Goldes.
TriStar Pictures/Welle Entertainment/JuVee Productions/Entertainment One/TSG Entertainment II-Entertainment One.
135 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 16 September 2022. UK Rel: 7 October 2022. Cert. 15.
