Lou Lumenick

Lou Lumenick

Courtship trumps slavery in all-too-tasteful ‘Belle’

If you were wondering what “12 Years a Slave” might have been like as a two-part episode of “Masterpiece Theatre,” you might want to check out this unsatisfying but not uninteresting oddity. It renders another historical story about race with exquisite taste but not much in the way of passion.

Amma Asante’s extremely talky and preachy “Belle” focuses on Dido Elizabeth Belle, a biracial girl who as youngster was brought by her admiral father to live with relatives in Britain after the death of her mother, a former slave from Africa.

Not much is actually known about Belle except that she was raised as a daughter by the admiral’s uncle — the country’s chief justice, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson), who in 1781 issued a ruling that led to Britain abandoning its disgracefully large role in the slave trade.

Certainly it’s an intriguing idea for a movie, but the execution is pretty tedious.

Sam Reid and Gugu Mbatha-Raw share a tender moment in “Belle.”AP/Fox Searchlight

Misan Sagay’s screenplay imagines that as a young woman Dido (the beautiful Gugu Mbatha-Raw, a fairly limited actress) influenced her guardian’s decision after becoming an ardent abolitionist following meeting cute with his legal apprentice (Sam Reid)

Though Dido’s smitten with this fiery young man, he’s not a proper match according to the complex rules of 18th-century English society, which among other things dictate she cannot dine with her family due to her race and lack of legal legitimacy. Marriage to the legal apprentice is out because he’s a lowly minister’s son and she’s inherited a fortune from her father after his death.

Instead, Dido dutifully agrees to a loveless match arranged by Lord Mansfield’s concerned wife (Emily Watson). The prospective groom is an impoverished aristocrat (James Norton) who’s willing to overlook Dido’s “exotic” ancestry and focus on her “better” side because of her money.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in “Belle.”AP/Fox Searchlight

Not so his racist brother (Tom “Draco Malfoy” Felton), who pursues Dido’s lily-white cousin and best friend Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) — they were raised together — at least until he discovers Elizabeth doesn’t come with an inheritance.

Because Sagay frames this as a faux Jane Austen comedy of manners (minus her wit), a happy romantic outcome is as predictable as the judicial one — in an infamous case where the owners of a slave ship drowned their sick slaves by chaining them to an anchor to collect insurance money.

Not that we see even a brief glimpse of this awful incident. Instead, slavery is pretty much relegated to dinner-table conversation in this PG-rated film, which often seems more interested in Georgian fashion and well-tended gardens.

The central image in “Belle” is a formal portrait being painted of Dido and Elizabeth — an apt choice for a movie that’s pretty as a picture and content to treat its themes of race, class and gender in a fairly insipid manner.