Netflix: Review of PASSING: Pretense and Prejudice

November 12, 2021

Irene (Tessa Thompson) was a light-skinned black woman who could pass as white, but she married a black man Brian Redfield (Andre Holland). With her blonde hair and even lighter skin, Clare (Ruth Negga) had actually been passing as white for some time, and even married an unsuspecting white man John Bellew (Alexander Skarsgard).

Clare admitted to Irene that she missed being a black woman and envied Irene's family life in Harlem. Meanwhile, Irene was very insecure about Clare's beauty and was even jealous about Clare's rapport with Brian. Irene's psychological breakdown eventually led their friendship to eventually become very strained.  

This film depicted a race issue I had not been aware of till now -- that of light-skinned black folk being able to pass as white in order to avoid the discriminatory practices American society subjected to blacks. The time setting of this film was in the 1920s when the prejudice against African-American folks was still very strong, so this makes Clare's boldness to pretend to be white all the more seem foolhardy, yet remarkably impressive. 

Despite being mixed race, Tessa Thompson still had some decidedly black features, which made her passing white not too convincing. While she was not entirely white-looking as well, Ruth Negga looked very comfortable as Clare. Even if it seems incredulous how a bigoted white man can unknowingly marry and stay married with Clare for a significant time, Negga's confident performance sold the illusion. 

I was surprised to learn after watching the film that writer-director Rebecca Hall is actually also half-black, even if she looked totally white. As an actress, Hall was always cast as a white character as well. Knowing about this interesting intersection of her real life situation and her fictional story makes this film more meaningful to watch. Maybe Hall should have gone further and cast herself as Clare since she could definitely pass as white without much makeup. 

The whole look of the film was very elegant, with the black and white grading seeming to reflect the underlying theme of racial fluidity. The beautiful costumes, hair styling and make-up also contribute to the credibility of the contrasting characters of Thompson and Negga. The pace of the storytelling was deliberately slow and the acting was very restrained, which may try the patience of some viewers. The ending is jarring and certainly unpredictable. 6/10.