The awards season has barely begun, but already there’s been a lot written about the unprecedented number of black contenders in this year’s Best Actor Oscar race. Many are assuming that past winner Forest Whitaker and Michael B. Jordan for the already-released “The Butler” and “Fruitvale Station” will get the nods. There’s also astounding, Oscar-caliber work by Chiwetel Ejiofor in “12 Years a Slave,” the best-received film so far at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which hits U.S. theaters next month after further exposure at the New York FIlm Festival.
The fourth black Best Actor contender being mentioned is the much respected, British-born Idris Elba, better known for his TV work (“The Wire,” “Luther”) than his movies like “Pacific Rim.” He certainly has an awards showcase playing the title role in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” which bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend prior to its scheduled Nov. 29 release in the U.S. via the Weinstein Co., which will give him and the film big Oscar pushes.
Elba definitely lends far more gravitas and physical presence to the role than Terrence Howard, who played Mandela in “Winnie Mandela,” which was released two years ago but only arrived last week in U.S. theaters. Elba fares best in the early sections of Justin Chadwick’s long (152 minutes) and conventional bio-pic, which begins in 1942 with Mandela’s career as an activist lawyer and ends with his becoming president of South Africa after serving 27 years of a life sentence for his ceaseless crusade against apartheid.
About midway through William Nicholson’s strictly chronological and somewhat ponderous script, Mandela becomes less a person than an iconic presence and Elba is somewhat constrained by the heavy makeup and prosthetics required for him to play a twinky-eyed Mandela in his 70s and beyond. But he certainly has his moments, maybe enough of them to acquire an Oscar nomination.
Naomie Harris fares better as the fiery Winnie Mandela, whose embrace of violent protest and infidelity during her husband’s long captivity eventually leads to their divorce (something that was largely glossed over in “Winnie Mandela,” where the lead character was played by Jennifer Hudson). There are no other big names in the very large cast, and no one else makes much of an impression in this elaborately staged and well-meaning, if not hugely inspiring, production.