With its three British Independent Film Awards — one being Best British Independent Film—its Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy and its newly announced BAFTA nominations, Pride would seem like a prime contender for us British-loving Americans. Especially when one considers how many accolades we’ve given to the good-but-not-great The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything so far this awards season.
And yet, thanks to its lackluster stateside distribution from CBS Films and dried-up word-of-mouth, Pride came and went like the seasons preceding it. A fairly shocking action, especially considering how gay rights became more mainstream and celebrated in our culture this year. While, by no means, is it the best British movie we got this year, this little biopic exploring a group of U.K. gay activists is certainly likable and fun in its own right.
In the summer of 1984, gay activists calling themselves the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) campaign team together to help the affected miners during their National Union of Mineworkers strike. As seen through the eyes of an enthusiastic but closeted homosexual Joe Cooper (George MacKay), the group is directed to Onllywn, a small mining village in Wales, thanks to Dai Donovan (Paddy Cosidine). He’s a straight-but-passionate miner who discovers their plight and wishes to bring charisma and charge to their fight.
Despite earning the affections of a few Wales citizens, the village as a whole is reluctant to welcome LGSM into their community. As such, their hard-working efforts are initially of futile help towards changing the stakes of anything. But through common grounds, the two groups form an alliance in due time.
For a movie about shaking things up in the face of conformity, Pride is ironically extremely traditional in its storytelling. Its cheesy, cookie-cutter story structure and run-of-the-mill plotting is frustrating more for how much it accomplishes beside it. The cast — especially Cosidine, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Jessica Gunning, Ben Schnetzer and a sorely underused Bill Nighy— are affectionate in their performances, giving the film’s beating sense of compassion with characters to root and cheer for. However, because director Matthew Warchus either doesn’t trust his audience enough or feels too compelled to simplifying the story as much as possible, the biopic only obtains a fraction of its true dramatic potential.
Its reliance on predictable conclusions, flat supporting characters and overbearing schmaltziness often makes Pride more tedious and self-satisfied than it should be. Plus, don’t even get me started on all its overly dramatic rousing speeches, which make me want to give The Theory of Everything some points for having just a smidge more subtlety regarding this overused cliché. Without any sense of self-awareness or restraint, this movie is boggled down by watered down repetition and a lack of distinction.
What ultimately keeps its afloat, beyond its reliable players, is its good-hearted sense of humor. At the very least, its often winning and thankfully continuous. Writer Stephen Beresford continuously uses humor to flow together what may otherwise become TV movie-level filmmaking, much like Graham Moore’s work on The Imitation Game’s screenplay. But what also propels this historical drama are its small character moments, which are so touchingly filled with sympathy and authenticity that they form Pride’s heart and soul.
Namely, the interactions dealing with characters’ homosexuality and insecurities are what become the most affecting. One scene between Nighy and Staunton is so stimulating because it is so reclusive, while another with MacKay and Monica Dolan, as Joe’s mother Marion, is perhaps the film’s best simply for how refreshingly it explores both sides of his character’s dilemma. These kinds of moments are what resurrect Pride from its shoddy second act, where its main character becomes lost and attempts at sympathy are continuously groan-worthy.
Pride is an enjoyable, if by the numbers, feel-good period piece whose successfully earnest mentality and important message overcomes its cloyingly cutesy and severely self-important tendencies. There’s a lot of heart and warmth here, but its both the kind you want to hug and the kind you roll your eyes at in annoyance. It ultimately skates by — if just by the skin of its teeth — through its humble and rewarding growth of goodwill. While, in my opinion, The Normal Heart was the best historical LGBT movie this past year, it’s hard to imagine this crowd pleasure will walk away with all-too-many detractors.
Also, to the DVD designers and/or studio heads who purposely took away any references of homosexuality on the box cover, shame on you.
Image via Amazon
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