‘The Woman King’ Review: A Knockout of Epic Proportions [TIFF 2022]
The female-lead creative team give audiences a powerful but surprisingly heartfelt story.
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s career as a filmmaker has been an exciting one to watch. From her start in romantic dramas like Love and Basketball, to eventually taking on the likes of studio-action with The Old Guard. Between those two wildly different kinds of films, Prince-Bythewood, in all her works, has been able to tell stories with strong emotional resonance that always shine the spotlight on strong black women. With The Woman King, Prince-Bythewood combines all the great elements of her existing body of work into what feels like a natural culmination of her tenure in Hollywood so far, which just so happens to be her strongest film yet.
The Woman King follows the story of the Kingdom of Dahomey, a West African kingdom in the early 1820’s. The film begins earlier into the reign of Dahomey’s new ruler, King Ghezo, played by blockbuster veteran John Boyega, and his attempt to eradicate the rival Oyo Empire, as well as ridding Dahomey of the plagues of the slave trade. Ghezo confides in his right hand woman, General Nanisca, played by the eternally remarkable Viola Davis, leader of a group of all female warriors known as the Agojie.
The audience is given its secondary protagonist with Nawi, an aspiring Dahomey warrior, played by rising star Thuso Mbedu. Nawi serves as the audience’s eyes into the world of Dahomey, and more specifically, the Agojie. As Nawi makes her way up in the ranks of the Agojie, she finds herself befriending Nanisca’s second in command, Izogie, played by Lashana Lynch, in a role of such magnitude that it feels like she should have had dozens of by now. Nawi also finds herself disobeying orders, and challenging the status quo of the Agojie, which leads to conflict between Nawi and Nanisca, and also helps strengthen Nawi’s solidarity with other members of the Agojie.
The film comes out swinging with spectacle right out of the gate, with a thrilling opening action sequence that cements the Agojie as about as formidable as characters can get. The stunt choreography is stellar, with kinetic action being given the chance to exist in fluid motions, and just keeps getting even more exciting as the film progresses. Every hit is felt, and heard. The third act contains stellar technical work that is simply so invigorating, and will be sure to rouse a crowd.
The Woman King benefits from having so many previously untold parts of history to work with. It’s able to use its historical backdrop to tell a period story involving black leads that does not focus on black trauma, but rather triumph, and also represents such an unprecedented, and important feat of representation in the current-world context. Despite being the protagonists of the story, the Dahomey kingdom and the Agojie are not totally moral characters. While the Agojie fight to rescue captured Dahomey citizens from slavers and the Oyo tribe, Dahomey itself also participates in the slave trade, which is a fact that causes many inciting actions in the films, and gives layers to dynamics with the film’s characters.
Despite the film being an action-packed epic, it also isn’t afraid to explore its characters beyond just being warriors in battle. The members of the Agojie are not only physically strong, but also very emotionally resilient, and such is shown to the audience in pragmatic ways that are able to define the characters in ways that never feel exploitative. However, a number of the scenes in which attempt to further character are present in the forms of a romantic subplot involving Mbedu’s Nawi, which frequently feels tonally misplaced in the film as a whole, and some melodrama which does not reach the other emotional heights. The film’s emotional core is at its best when focusing on sisterhood and overcoming adversity, and luckily enough, these elements are prominent throughout the film as a whole.
Prince-Bythewood has both hands on the wheel from a directorial standpoint, and it’s easy to see. Despite the grand nature of the story at hand, she is always able to evoke the most out of every performance and give every scene such an added emotional and sometimes comedic sensibility, which makes the film as a whole very well-rounded. The film finds immense strength with its characters, and Prince-Bythewood genuinely understands that, and uses it to the film’s advantage tenfold. Every featured member of the Agojie is given enough of a spotlight, whether that comes via characteristically introspective work, or getting to prove their talent as a warrior on the battlefield, with both often combining to make every moment of the action more intense and heart-pounding.
The role of Nanisca sees Davis operating on a whole-new level, a testament to just how phenomenal she is as an actress. Not only does Nanisca represent Davis’ most physically prominent role, but also has the unmatched psychological and emotional panache that Davis is known for. Thuso Mbedu is sure to become a breakout star as the beating heart of the film, and is able to hold her own against Davis, one of the world’s most talented performers, with ease. Lashana Lynch and John Boyega excel in their roles. While both have done several action blockbusters in the past, they make their roles here memorable and exciting, and truly take welcomed turns in which we’ve not seen them before. Another breakout role comes from Sheila Atim, who plays Agojie warrior Amenza, whose commanding presence adds so much to the film.
The Woman King represents something that is a big “first” in Hollywood, but certainly should not be the last. While it is unprecedented in terms of specific achievement, films like The Woman King should just be more commonplace, as well crafted, crowd-pleasing, exciting historical epics, often are few and far between anymore in the current climate of cinema. Ultimately, the film’s own merits do enough of the talking, and cement the film as a must-watch, with its mighty performances, razor-sharp direction, and exhilarating spectacle, The Woman King is a thoroughly exciting epic which packs several punches and lands its blows, earning its worth of being seen with the biggest screen, and crowd, possible.