A United Kingdom (12A)

three stars

Dir: Amma Asante

With: David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Tom Felton

Runtime: 111 minutes

AMMA Asante’s picture is based on a true story of a passionate campaigner fighting for his country to take charge of its own destiny, only to have the British establishment try to squash him under its thumb. No, it is not Alex Salmond: The Movie. That project is still firmly on the drawing board, somewhere.

In the meantime, there is the solidly entertaining A United Kingdom to wonder at. This is rattlingly good tale well told, with the added bonus that many may not be familiar with it; and while it is set shortly after the end of the Second World War, what A United Kingdom has to say about the nature of power and the strength of a good union (in this case marriage) is timeless.

Asante’s picture opens in a pea-souper London of 1947. The Empire has helped to win the war and there is a Labour government in power, building a national health service and council housing fit for returning heroes. A quiet revolution seems to be happening in fusty old Britain, but its scope does not extend everywhere as we see when Ruth Williams, a white Londoner, meets Seretse Khama, a black prince from the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) at a church dance. Ruth and Seretse (Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo) want to be like every other dating couple, but because of the differences in their skin colour they are more likely to be attacked in the street than invited round to tea by the neighbours. As for meeting her deeply conservative father (played by Nicholas Lyndhurst), forget it.

Seretse is in England studying. It had always been his intention to return to Bechuanaland and become king, so he asks Ruth to return with him as his queen. It should be just another tale of love and marriage (apart from the royal connection), but this union between a salesman’s daughter and an African prince sparks a full blown diplomatic incident. In Whitehall and Westminster the men in grey suits are wondering in particular what apartheid South Africa, on whom the British government depends for gold, will make of the marriage.

Asante previously helmed A Way of Life (about a teenage single mother) and Belle (a historical drama, again based on a true story, about the anti-slavery movement in 18th century England). She is skilled at weaving politics through her pictures, making sure that the joins do not show and never making her points too obviously. She also looks at a story from many different angles. Here, for example, she shows that it was not just in England that the couple faced prejudice; the same occurred when they reached Bechuanaland, with someone pointing out that since the British would not accept a black king, why should the citizens of Bechuanaland accept a white queen?

The characterisation does flirt with cliche when it comes to portraying the British establishment of the time. Jack Davenport’s Whitehall mandarin all but twirls an invisible moustache and laughs devilishly as he tries to prevent the marriage, while Tom Felton deploys all the sour looks he picked up playing Malfoy in Harry Potter. Otherwise, the politics of the day play out in fascinating fashion, with a young Mr Tony Benn (the very same) coming forward to help the young couple stay together.

What impresses throughout is how astonishingly brave this couple were, and how far ahead of their time. Oyelow and Pike do them proud. Asante doesn’t have a lot of money to spend, as can be seen in some of the crowd scenes, so she relies heavily on her two lead actors to do the dramatic heavy lifting. Oyelow, pitch perfect as Dr Martin Luther King Jr in Selma, is just as skilful here with Khama’s accent. Pike, meanwhile, makes a hugely endearing Ruth, a woman prepared to leave behind her family and everything she had known for an adventure on the other side of the world. Together, they spark up a storm.