Mark Reviews Movies: THE WOMAN KING

The Woman King, Sony Pictures Releasing

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | September 15, 2022

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Woman King is an ambitious and, within the context of which histories receive the big-budget telling on the big screen, important movie. Here is the story of the Kingdom of Dahomey, perhaps the most contemporarily well-known kingdom in Africa during its 300-year existence until the beginning of the 20th century.

Such a fact, though, would be unknown to people whose understanding of history is limited to the status quo of how history is taught in schools and dramatized in popular culture. Watching Prince-Bythewood's movie, it occasionally feels as if we're watching something new and revolutionary, even as Dana Stevens' screenplay more or less follows a series of storytelling molds that don't quite add up to a focused or particularly unique narrative. The movie's existence is vital. Its execution, however, leaves a bit to be desired.

That's certainly not in terms of the quality of the production, which looks authentic and lived-in, or its performances, to be sure. The setting is West Africa in 1823, as Dahomey is currently a tributary state within the Oyo Empire. Tensions are mounting between the kingdom and that larger entity, and some succinct opening text sets up the basics. The Oyo are raiding Dahomey villages, abducting their populations, and selling the prisoners to European and American slavers. Stevens faces a bit of an issue, since Dahomey was also a contributor to the Atlantic slave trade, but the movie's framing of it as a "vicious circle" of power, defense, and a matter almost of economic necessity at the time goes a long way to contextualizing it.

Our protagonist, a fictionalized general in an elite fighting force of Dahomey, helps a lot, too. She is Nanisca (Viola Davis), the head of a group of all-women fighters called the Agojie. The general is battle-hardened, fierce, and of a reforming mindset, since she and her fellow warriors have recently been tasked to free Dahomey captives before they can be sold to outside slavers. Davis is an undeniable force in the role, although much of that comes from the degree of physical stillness and emotional restraint she brings to the character. This is a woman in complete control of her mental and physical faculties, and that makes her both powerful and, to Nanisca's occasional detriment, stubborn.

Ghezo (John Boyega), the king of the nation, isn't quite as certain about ending the practice of selling prisoners of war, and indeed, as naturally regal and affable as Boyega comes across in this performance, his character is one of the shortcomings of this tale. Then again, the movie's disinterest in communicating internal and external politics in general might be the major contributor to that.

It's not too important to the simple and straightforward story Stevens has written, anyway. That story is focused primarily on the Agojie and divided pretty cleanly in two. The first half follows Nanisca in her occasional and, since she is a warrior at heart, reluctant politicking, while also introducing us to the ways and traditions of the Agojie by way of Nawi (played by relative newcomer Thuso Mbedu, who's naturally and consistently engaging). Nawi is volunteered into the Agojie by her father after she refuses a husband, and her through line becomes a coming-of-age story and a means of showing the tough training, the customary rituals, and the sense of unity of being among this group of fighters.

As the plot moves toward the second half, which amounts to a series of battles between the Agojie and their enemy neighbors and foreign invaders, matters do become a bit too divided. The other members of the women's army, apart from a strong Lashana Lynch's Izogie, are given little characterization but are expected to give some tragic weight to some of the battles. Nawi gets something of a romantic interest in Malik (Jayme Lawson), the son of an enslaved Dahomey woman in Brazil, who has come to Africa to see his mother's home with slaver Santo (Hero Fiennes Tiffin). The subplot, though, only leads to a point that makes the whole thing unnecessary.

Meanwhile, all of the palace intrigue, with Nanisca receiving pushback from Ghezo's advisors and wives, amounts to little for all of the screen time and hints of conflict it's given. The Oyo are personified by a ruthless general (played by Jimmy Odukoya), who has a terrible connection to Nanisca that also deepens and complicates her relationship with Nawi—only for that to be sidelined for the story's showdowns, fights, and a climactic assault on the port that's the local hub of the slave trade. The action sequences are brutal and bloody affairs (The PG-13 rating feels a bit of a stretch) that are occasionally rousing, especially when they do focus on a character whose story matters, and sometimes messy in how Prince-Bythewood, along with editor Terilyn A. Shropshire, assemble them.

Again, the existence of The Woman King is worthy of a lot of admiration for bringing a too-often-ignored part of history to life on such a sizeable stage. It's at its best when the movie is at its simplest—giving us a clear sense of these characters, this place, and this group of women warriors. Everything else in this tale, though, is either too underdeveloped or too much of a distraction for the movie to bolster its most obvious and effective strengths.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products