Movie Review - Pride

Pride (2014)

Starring Ben Schnetzer, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, Andrew Scott, George MacKay, and Joseph Gilgun

Directed by Matthew Warchus

While the jovial atmosphere nearly always omnipresent in Pride is welcoming and certainly entertaining, Matthew Warchus' film about a group of gay and lesbian activists working to help Welsh miners during a year-long 1984 strike finds itself a bit too packed to the gills with quirky characters to really make an impact.  The removal of a variety of subplots would've trimmed down the rather extended runtime and created a more concise and resonant piece.  As it stands now, Pride is a decent film, but always finds itself teetering on the edge of overstaying its welcome.

Although the subject matter can get serious at times, Warchus keeps the atmosphere relatively light-hearted while detailing the mining strike and the oftentimes anti-homosexual attitudes of 1980s England.  Plus, despite the abundant and sometimes superfluously large cast, all the actors assembled here more than adequately provide the requisite humor and drama necessary for their individual characters.  Ben Schnetzer is certainly captivating as the film's lead, emoting the proper amount of strength and vulnerability in the role of the leader of his founded group - LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners).  Aided by the jaunty Imelda Staunton, buttoned-up Bill Nighy, and charming Paddy Considine as Welsh townsfolk who welcome LGSM to assist them in raising money for the miners, the cast clicks.

The successful cast, in the end, makes it all the more unfortunate that the movie doesn't quite click as well.  Pride is fine, but "fine" could've been so much better with a little more working with the script in order to excise some of the extra side stories.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+