Directed by: Robin Bissell
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Sam Rockwell, Bruce McGill, Anne Heche, Babou Ceesay
The true story of The Best of Enemies is one which you would think couldn't miss. The head muckety-muck of the Durham, NC Ku Klux Klan changes his heart about his racism toward blacks after working with a local black activist over the touchy subject of school integration. But despite some powerful individual moments, The Best of Enemies never fully satisfies. C.P. Ellis (Rockwell) and Ann Atwater (Henson) have arguments, showdowns, and shouting matches over their opposite positions, but nowhere present is the bonding moment which convincingly allows us to see why C.P. publicly renounced his Ku Klux Klan membership. The scene, which still generates some emotional resonance, is still more muted than it should be, as if C.P.'s change of heart was dictated by the screenplay more than real life factors.
The early scenes showing us the complicated lives of C.P. and Ann set things up nicely. C.P. conducts his customary meeting with his Klan brotherhood, promising to protect the white race against Communists, Jews, and Blacks. He is a god in the eyes of the younger members which are organized as a Klan youth group. This entire sequence is appropriately unsettling. Ann's plight as a fair housing activist battling a slumlord in front of an unsympathetic town council of all white men is equally as enraging. But we see how the indefatigable Ann won't take any guff from the powers-that-be in Durham circa 1971.
Durham seemed to have taken the "with all deliberate speed" clause to heart from the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Seventeen years following the historic decision, Durham's schools are still segregated, until an electrical fire guts the bulk of the all-black elementary school, forcing a showdown with the town council over having the displaced black students go to the all-white school. The town council punts the issue to a federal judge, who in turn calls on Raleigh-based attorney Bill Reddick (Ceesay) to oversee a charrette (a series of discussions between citizens in order to resolve the conflict). The charrette's majority vote will determine whether integration happens or not. Reddick chooses C.P. to represent the extremists who don't want segregation under any circumstances, in the interest of fairness, I suppose.
We know what is coming, and that is okay. C.P. and Ann will fight until they begin to open up to each other and let the other see inside. Only, the latter part doesn't really happen. The two never truly connect. Ann gives an assist to C.P. by helping his special needs son move to a private room at the local institution, to which he responds, "don't help with my family," or something to that effect.
I suppose this act of kindness moved C.P. to see the error of his ways, but it isn't spelled out.
The Best of Enemies was a movie I wanted to like, but instead I find it frustrating. More attention is paid to C.P. than Ann, who is reduced to a one-dimensional dramatic arc. She is either pissed off or about to be pissed off, and I was happy to see her in scenes in which her blood pressure wasn't being elevated by the dirtbags around her. Rockwell played a racist who underwent a moving change of heart in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. He won a well-deserved Oscar for the role, and he was helped by the film's intelligent writing which showed us the genesis for his change. In The Best of Enemies, he is channeling his Three Billboards redneck character and is given everything but motivation for his reversal of his lifelong ideology. The performances are solid, albeit not very deep because the screenplay doesn't allow for much depth.
Despite my misgivings, The Best of Enemies nearly works. Anytime a KKK member can denounce his past and move forward to enlightenment, there is inherent interest. We learn C.P. and Ann became friends for the rest of their lives after C.P. left the KKK, and we see their interactions in interviews and home videos. I just wish I knew for sure how this came to be. Maybe a documentary on this very subject would've been more enlightening.
No comments:
Post a Comment