Monday Night Movies

UNITED KINGDOM, 2017, PG-13, 111 MIN.

The romance and subsequent marriage between Botswana nobleman Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) and Englishwoman Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) in 1947 set off a chain of events that one couldn't call unexpected. Racial discord as demonstrated in this film isn't indigenous to Jim Crow America. The tribes in Seretse's native land divide over what they perceive as an unholy coupling. Neighboring South Africa institutes Apartheid. Meanwhile the Brits, who get a real black eye in this film, attempt to exploit the turmoil grasping at the last vestiges of their once formidable empire and also to mine the fertile Botswana land for precious minerals. There are many complex aspects to the film's narrative but director Asante juggles these diverse pieces expertly