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THE BEST OF ENEMIES (2019)
Director: Robin Bissell Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Babou Ceesay, Anne Heche, Bruce McGill, Nick Searcy, Wes Bentley, John Gallagher Jr., Nicholas Logan, Gilbert Glenn Brown, Caitlin Mehner, Dolan Wilson MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:13 Release Date: 4/5/19 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 4, 2019 The Best of Enemies begins with Ann Atwater, an African-American civil rights activist in the city of Durham, North Carolina. By the time the movie ends, though, her character and her story have become ancillary to the changing perspective of a white man. The man in question, by the way, is one Claiborne Paul "C.P." Ellis, the president of local branch of the Ku Klux Klan in the city. As long as there have been movies about racism and the fight for civil rights, there have been movies in which the perspectives of real or fictional black men and women have been overshadowed by tales of misguided, ignorant, or downright angry white people, who really have good hearts deep down. The shift in this one, though, is particularly jarring—and not just because the movie finds almost instant sympathy with a leader within a domestic terrorist organization. Here, we have two real-life people: one who spent almost her entire life fighting for justice on a local level and another who spent decades of his life raised in and practicing hatred. One understands the pull toward Ellis' story that writer/director Robin Bissell must have felt. That character is the one who ultimately undergoes a drastic change of mind and heart. Undoubtedly, the drama is there, in that story of a man gradually realizing that his entire life, work, and ideology is based on a lie. Here's the thing, though: These two characters are intertwined, and without one story, the other one loses most of its impact. We only come to understand Ann, played by Taraji P. Henson, on a single level. At the start, she's a fierce and outspoken advocate against discrimination and for helping people in need. By the end, nothing else about her has been revealed. She barely becomes a significant guiding force for the change within the man whose story this becomes. Meanwhile, C.P., played by Sam Rockwell, is afforded with layers. He's a hate-filled man when it comes to those who are different than him, but quickly, we also see him as a devout family man, who loves his wife Mary (Anne Heche) and four children. Much is made of his devotion to one son, who has Down syndrome and lives in a psychiatric facility. C.P.'s life is presented as a struggle, from his family situation to the uncertain future of a gas station he owns and runs. On the other end of the character dynamic, there is a single scene of significance involving Ann's daughter, whom she raises on her own, even as she juggles multiple levels of advocacy. That scene, by the way, is presented as a chance for C.P. to come face to face with the girl, who looks at him, as he regretfully puts it, as if he's a monster. His wife, at least, has some basic common sense: "What did you expect?" The story is set in 1971, after a segregated black school in the city is devastated by a fire. Bissell's screenplay (based on Osha Gray Davidson's book) offers no historical or political context as to how segregation is still allowed within Durham's school system, and indeed, the entire plot hinges around a significant alteration to history. In reality, a court had ordered that the city's school become integrated. The story, both here and in history, has a judge calling upon Bill Riddick (Babou Ceesay), a community organizer based in Raleigh, to organize a local charrette—a series of community meetings, in which members of the public debate and come up with legal resolutions. Those are voted upon by a randomly selected senate of racially and ideologically diverse people. Bill names C.P. and Ann as co-chairs of the charrette, and in this version of the story, one of the key votes will be whether or not to integrate the city's public schools, which makes for decent drama but a laughable change to political history. The two main characters, of course, can't stand each other. Bill tries to get them to talk, but they argue and bicker. When they aren't doing those things, they give each other the silent treatment. Henson and Rockwell do their best, which is noteworthy, although it's only Rockwell's character who actually has somewhere to go in this interpretation of the story. Smartly, he doesn't overplay anything—either the hatred or the change of heart. A series of montages give us a basic idea of the charrette being organized and put into practice, but there's little attempt to put forth the issues underlying the racial and political divides within the population. Instead, local politicians collude with the KKK, and that organization attempts to influence some of the liberal, white members of the charrette's senate. The whole thing builds to what seems to be a wholly miraculous change in C.P. It comes across that way because The Best of Enemies doesn't present a tangible reason for his ideological shift. Part of that failure is Bissell's aversion to politics that aren't, quite literally, black and white, but a good portion of it belongs to the movie's unwillingness to give both characters in this story equal significance. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for thematic material, racial epithets, some violence and a suggestive
reference)
