Written by: Guy Hibbert
Starring: David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Terry Pheto, Jack Davenport, Tom Felton
Rating: [3.5/5]
Balancing our personal and professional lives remains one of the ongoing issues everyone faces during their lifetime. Succeeding in one or the other comes its challenges but doing both at the same time feels impossible. A United Kingdom proposes a true story where this balance gets put to the test to an extreme degree making for a tale about love amidst adversity in a touching manner.
While in London studying law, Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the heir to the throne of Bechuanaland begins to fall in love with an Englishwoman named Ruth (Rosamund Pike). When he proposes marriage to her, it receives opposition not only from his people back home as he arrives with her but also from the British government who oppose how it impacts South Africa and their Apartheid policies.
Taking in the opinions of others on your relationship must anger many, but the degree to which this transpires in A United Kingdom would drive anyone insane. For Seretse and Ruth not only do they have relatives chiming in but sovereign governments have this vested interest in making them fail. This surely tests the resolve of this central couple and what we receive in this film sells it all wonderfully well as we buy into this love and how it could defy all of these larger forces trying to pull them apart.
The implications of this relationship come seeped into history both good and bad in both of the communities they come from. For Ruth, as a white woman, marrying a Black man comes with inevitable racism of this time she must fight against in justifying her love. Adding in the threats of betraying her country and somehow bringing down the entire English empire sure makes it more difficult. Her plight, of course, does not compare to what Seretse must contend with as he must deal with the racism inflicted upon him on top of the pressures from his very own people to marry a princess of the nation rather than some white Englishwoman. He puts his place on the throne on the line for this marriage with Ruth truly putting it to the test.
Of course, interracial relationships and marriages have drawn plenty of controversy before they were legal but even now they still ignite some feelings from all sides. Specifically, with this happening in reality in history, we have the women of Bechuanaland who feel as if some white woman has usurped their right to serve as Queen of their people. They could have held the same anger for a woman from another African country but having this be an English woman, while this nation dealt with British imperialism made this decision by Seretse all the more a slap in the face. Amma Asante has never shied away from examining the interracial relationships forgotten in history and in fact, it pretty much dominates her filmography when you look at Belle and her other one, which I refuse to watch. She certainly has a vested interest in telling these stories and she does so quite well once again with this one.
Therefore, in this film, we have a story of love and a geopolitical examination of an imperial power trying to maintain some semblance of control on a segment of Africa where they begin to slip up. These two storylines get merged fairly seamlessly as we see what makes the love between these two so powerful that it could muster all of the vitriol they have while also teaching us plenty about what would later become modern-day Botswana. A nicely packaged deal that accomplishes all it needs to despite that horrid poster it got saddled with.
This film comes with some flourishes and lovely moments to take in as we go through this emotional journey with these characters and it certainly helps when this feature solicits the talents of Rosamund Pike and David Oyelewo for the lead roles. They make this love story a believable one and deliver all of the emotional moments needed in order for us to never waver on what makes them a couple with rooting for. A lovely little triumph that has plenty on its plate and manages to deliver the necessary emotional beats.
Films with Josh 
