Amazing Grace (2006)
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Michael Gambon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, Rufus Sewell, Youssou N’Dour, Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones
Director: Michael Apted
Screenplay: Steven Knight
Running Time: 117 minutes
WILLIAM Wilberforce was a young man who was responsible for ending slavery in Britain and her dominions. Although it would take the US a civil war and 58 years to follow their lead, when the Wilberforce-sponsored Slave Trade Act passed in the English parliament in 1807, it wasn’t only greeted by loud applause, but sounded the death knell for one of mankind’s most ashamed practices.
While there are some scratchy patches through the middle, movie is well directed by Apted, with the cast really getting stuck into their roles. Gruffudd especially has expunged the bad memory in his acting repertoire of playing Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four movies, and the oft-seen-lately Hinds makes a great foil to Gruffudd’s moralistic Wilberforce. Only historical hiccup is Apted tends to underplay Wilberforce’s Road to Damascus moment when he took up religion with a fervour usually reserved for the Jerry Falwell’s of this world, and thus reinforced his distaste for slavery.
4 stars out of 5
