The Integration Charrette – The Best of Enemies (2019)

Meeting in the middle.  So based on real life events, this is about the town of Durham, North Carolina in 1971.  The local black school is significantly damaged in an electrical fire, and the only school nearby that the students could possibly relocate to is a white high school.  There are not a whole lot of options on the table, so a committee of both blacks and whites is formed, including a civil rights activist (Taraji P. Henson) and the local leader of the Ku Klux Klan (Sam Rockwell).  How could they possibly ever find a compromise?  Now this one came and went pretty quietly, all things considered.  I heard a decent thing or two about it, but there was nothing that made me rush out to see it in a theater.  I finally got around to checking it out once it hit home market, and while this never approaches the realm of being a classic, I do think it accomplishes what it set out to do.

You have seen movies of this ilk before.

Now to this movie’s credit, it does feature some surprising positives.  For one thing it is a pretty incredible story.  I can’t say that I am familiar with the historical events, but it almost seems so far out of the ordinary that you would only see it in cinemas; this gave me a similar feeling that I experienced when I walked out of BlacKkKlansman last year, which was also inspired by true events.  I enjoyed the cast of this as well.  There are good character actors filling out the supporting cast, like Wes Bentley and Nick Searcy.  Sam Rockwell is great as always, but I don’t know how many more times he can get a pass at playing a racist with a redemption story arc (i.e. Three Billboards).  Most impressive would have to be Taraji P. Henson.  She really shows what range she has in this, and after watching her in What Men Want so recently, I was just impressed with how far she can take her acting in the other direction.

She has screen presence, and she always brings it.

The biggest downfall to this movie is that it is mostly predictable, and you can pretty much map out where this is going to go before you are out of the first act.  If this had more surprises it could have easily been the type of movie that would be in the talks for award contention.  It recognizes that it just doesn’t have that edge though, which is why this got an April release instead of November.  Still, this is a highly accessible story with a good flow, and if your movie is longer than two hours, those two items are essential.  I enjoyed myself watching this enough to give it a low recommendation.

The Best of Enemies (2019) ***1/2

– Critic for Hire