Viola Davis' Oscar-worthy performance royally rules ambitious, sanitized crowd-pleaser 'Woman King'
“The Woman King” - ★ ★ ½
Let's first acknowledge that actress Viola Davis rocks the planet in any movie she makes.
She pumps her dramatic characters with humanity, creates rock-solid cores of credibility for them, opens windows into their souls, and imbues each with a magical inner glow - all this while exuding the sheer joy of performing.
It should come as no surprise that she often proves to be a film's most valuable asset.
Such is the case in Gina Prince-Bythewood's ambitious, sanitized and exceedingly conventional crowd-pleaser “The Woman King.”
As the titular warrior General Nanisca, Davis paints a scarred, pain-wracked portrait of disillusionment and world-weary exhaustion.
During the 1800s in Africa, she leads the Agojie, a division of all-female warriors charged with protecting the Kingdom of Dahomey.
The opening of “The Woman King” attests to their efficiency and ruthlessness.
Like lethal shadows, the Agojie slowly rise up from tall grasses to psych out the enemy in a Mahi village holding Dahomey prisoners for slave traders.
With a blood curdling cry, the Agojie attack in a furious flurry of blades, spears, clubs and razor-honed fingernails.
This ultraviolent, mano-a-womano conflict lasts just long enough to recognize one of the film's chief shortcomings. It should have been released in the R-rated version that it so earnestly yearns to be and needs to be.
The overly choreographed fights, quick edits and frequent cutaways to off-screen, PG-13-safe action gut the movie's maximum potential for visceral engagement.
Consider that the film's most cringeworthy scene has nothing to do with the onslaught of visually muted slashed throats, decapitations and eyeball piercings. It involves impulsive young Agojie recruit Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) resetting the dislocated elbow of her mentor warrior Izogie (Lashana Lynch).
Ouch!
And how can so much blood be spilled in 144 long minutes and yet, we actually see so little of it?
“The Woman King” has the feel of a “Game of Thrones” episode edited for the Lifetime Channel.
The main plot centers around a classic mentor/protégé relationship, this one between Nawi with both Izogie and Nanisca alternating as her coach and adviser.
The Agojie operate under the authority of King Ghezo (John Boyega), a complete stick figure of a ruler in Dana Stevens' screenplay, a solemn fellow lacking much personality or any specific political views on women, slavery or polygamy.
(As a historical note, the Kingdom of Dahomey didn't fight to end slavery; it thrived on the sale of slaves to European buyers. Not only does “Woman King” downplay this, the PG-13 rating minimizes the inhumanity and brutality of slavery by making it look not all that terrible, as “12 Years a Slave” certainly did.)
“Woman King” gives us two villains, the first being an Oyo Empire powermonger named Oba Ade (Jimmy Odukoya), revealed in flashbacks to have given Nanisca plenty of reason to want him killed, after being tortured, probably.
The second villain would be resident slaver trader Santo Ferreira (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), a Portuguese-speaking businessman with a hunky sidekick named Malik (Jordan Bolger), looking as if he just came from auditions to be the next Fabio Lanzoni.
Malik's mixed heritage (a white dad and Dahomey mom) provides him with a more interesting back story than personality. He seems quite smitten by Nawi when she catches him swimming in the buff.
Don't cue the violin strings just yet. The Agojie swear a solemn pledge to forego husbands and children to serve their tribe, which would create a potent conflict if this flirtatious attraction ascended to a higher level.
Instead, the whiff of romance simply dead-ends, negating the need for Nawi to make a dramatic, formidable sacrifice one way or the other.
Although Mbedu and Davis more or less share lead roles, Davis dominates this movie with a spellbinding gravitas that almost feels out-of-synch with her conventional surroundings.
Will there ever be a version of “The Woman King” that explores Prince-Bythewood's production beyond the narrative restraints of PG-13?
Probably not, because as many filmmakers know, you can't fight the power of marketing.
Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, John Boyega
Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Other: A TriStar Pictures release in theaters. Rated PG-13 for language, nudity, sexual situations, violence. 144 minutes