Belle (2014 Movie Review)

"Laws that allow us to diminish the humanity of anybody are not laws."

Belle, the 2014 movie, was one of the best movies watched so far this year! Utterly amazing. Not only was it based off a true story, but it was also the movie that Nadine Brandes based some of her historical fiction novel Fawkes off of!

Belle is based of the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay, the illegitimate, mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy captain. When her mother dies, Dido goes to live with her great aunt and uncle who live in London, during the eighteenth century. It’s an amazing story about her life during a time of the start of the end of the slave trade in England, and the many hardships and difficulties Dido faces. 

It’s such an amazing movie in and of itself, but the fact that Nadine Brandes says that Dido is who inspired the character for Emma is her novel Fawkes, just made me want to watch it more. I don't know how to say enough how much I recommend watching this movie after reading Fawkes.

I don't know if it was just a “me thing”, but I personally enjoyed this movie more I think than if they made a movie based completely off of Fawkes. Maybe because I was already going into this movie knowing it wasn’t a perfect interpretation of the novel, rather—it’s a movie that  Nadine Brandes watched before writing her novel, and got inspired. It’s not the masks, White Light, Gunpowder Plot, etc. sides of Fawkes, mostly just the relational and historical aspects.  

There was different scenes that I noticed were very similar to scenes in the novel, including the masquerade, walking about London, and so on.

That all being said, this movie was a stellar movie in and of itself! I have to admit that I had been close to crying, was laughing, and then close to crying again, all through out this movie. You really just have to watch it for yourself to understand. Because any yapping and raving from me won’t give it enough credit. 

I’d rate this movie a 9 out of 10!