MOVIE REVIEW: Selma

Selma chronicles one of the lesser known incidents in US history (as far as I'm concerned) in the 1960's, in the deep South when the Civil Rights movement attempted to march peacefully from Selma, Alabama to the State capital of Montgomery to demand voting rights for African-Americans in the time where segregation was still fully implemented and recognized in that State. 

Working from a wonderful unsentimental script by Paul Webb, and ably directed by Ava DuVerney, Selma is a powerful film in a chapter of Martin Luther King Jr.'s remarkable life as he fights the sitting US President at that time Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act. 

British actor David Oyelowo was born to portray the Civil Rights leader. Aside from some strking resemblance to MLK Jr., he gave a passionate performance that showed Dr. King was really a highly principled and charismatic man who never accepted violence as means to get their point across the nation and yet he was no saint. It is only in this movie that I found out that he was having problems with his wife Coretta (an elegant Carmen Ejogo) about infidelity. Selma proved that Martin Luther King Jr. was human after all. 

It's amazing that four of the major characters in the movie were portrayed by British actors. Oyelowo (MLK Jr.), Ejogo (Coretta), President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) and Alabama Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth). All of them were great. 

The heart of the movie though belongs to the film's producer Oprah Winfrey, who played Annie Lee Cooper. In one of the film's early scenes, she displayed firmness yet surrender as she was trying to register to vote. This is a different Oprah from her previous film The Butler as well as the talk show host the world has learned to love. She may not have much scenes compared to the other actors but when you're Oprah, you better make sure your supporting role would be a memorable one and she passed with flying colors.

Selma is a perfect companion piece to 2013's Oscar Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave, we can see how civil rights in the world's most powerful country has progressed and sadly until now there's still a long way to go.