Passing (2021)

Film: Passing (2021)

Stars: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, Andre Holland, Bill Camp, Alexander Skarsgard

Director: Rebecca Hall

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I am less than 48 hours away from heading into my longest vacation period from work of the year, which will include at least four days of getting to do things around my house, and so we will also be using that time to catch up on some of the 2021 films that I haven't reviewed yet (that I need to get through before we can do our year-end lists, and maybe head back to reviewing some older movies again!).  We will start this conversation with Passing, a film that you can catch even if you're a bit leery about going out to a theater right now, as it's on Netflix.  Adapted from Nella Larsen's nearly 100-year-old novel, Passing is one of several auspicious directorial debuts from noted actors (here, Rebecca Hall), and features Ruth Negga in a performance that is getting a lot of critical attention.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie focuses on the strange friendship between Irene Redfield (Thompson) and Clare Bellow (Negga), who were childhood friends in Chicago.  Both women are Black, but while Redfield "passes" as white in the film's opening scenes while she's book-shopping, Clare has made this her life, marrying a bigoted white man who doesn't know the truth about her ethnicity.  Clare begins to visit Irene in Harlem, and while this feels innocent initially, Irene's obsession with Clare starts to manifest itself into a worry that Clare is having an affair with Irene's husband (played by Andre Holland).  Though Irene tries to rid Clare from her life, her husband invites her back, which just ratchets up her worry.  The film climaxes with an encounter between Irene and Clare's husband John (Skarsgard), who upon seeing Irene with a black woman who cannot "pass," understands that his wife has lied to him.  Before he can confront her at a party, Clare falls out a window, though it's not entirely clear from the way the film shoots the scene whether Clare falls by accident, whether John pushes her, or whether Irene does, trying to get her husband's mistress out of the way.

Passing is best when it's trying to keep the audience guessing, though that doesn't always work as the film continues.  The opening scenes are well-constructed, a look into the world of two women who grew up as light-skinned Black women in Chicago, but chose very different avenues for their lives, and each to some degree both covet & disapprove of the other woman's choices.  The cinematography helps to underscore this-choosing literal black-and-white for a story that talks so much about color might feel an obvious choice, but the way the film is lit you understand a lesser team wouldn't have come to this realization.

It's the performances that don't quite feel right to me.  I get the idea of having Thompson, Holland, & Negga all play characters with clear secrets and ambiguity, but so much left unseen by the audience makes the picture feel like half a movie.  Thompson, our eyes into both of these worlds, in particular feels like she doesn't give the audience enough of her opinions, of why she suspects the affair (that there's very little evidence of), and it makes the movie feel incomplete.  That said, Negga is excellent as Clare.  Unknowable is pretty much the definition of this character who has hidden herself so fully (but clearly understands her own motives quite well), and Negga plays her precisely.  Every scene you get to see just a little bit more of who Clare is, what she's trying to accomplish, but in doing so Clare hides another facet of herself, like a crystal twirling in the sun-you can never fully see all of who she is.  Best Supporting Actress is a tough field this year, but it's good to know she's in that conversation.