Pride

:**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Matthew Warchus/Starring: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Paddy Considine

Based on the true story of the 1984 UK miner's strike, Pride dramatizes the unlikely alliance of the gay/lesbian group known as LGSM (Lesbian, Gays Support the Miners) and a Welsh mining town and the conflict that arose from the two disparate cultures uniting for a purpose. Identifying with the miner's mistreatment in the hands of an unsympathetic Thatcherite government, the LGSM starts a campaign to raise money for the strikers.

Led by a charismatic, young, gay man named Mark (Ben Schnetzer), the LGSM is formed as an activist group whose first campaign is to raise money for families of striking miners. The small group claims a gay/lesbian London bookstore as their center of operations.

The film firmly establishes the vehement anti-gay/lesbian climate of early mid-1980s'; showing us people who are very familiar with the hostility and violence their culture sometimes arouses.

The group chooses a small, Welsh mining town as a recipient of their fund-raising but are apprehensive; harboring no illusions about the virulent resistance they will most likely encounter. After the LGSM acquire a van to transport them to Wales, a young member of the group named Joe (George McKay) deceives his conservative parents into believing his trip is nothing more than a school-related school baking class. We know sooner or later his deception will be exposed, which adds a pinch of tension to a story already fraught.

As the group makes their way to the Welsh burg, the townsfolk prepare for LGSM's arrival. Though many are hospitably inclined, some fear the group and what they represent. Undaunted by anti-gay sentiment, some members of the community, lead by town representative Dai (Paddy Considine) embrace the group's altruistic agenda and their identity. Among the sympathetic citizens are Cliff (Bill Nighy) and Hefina (Imelda Staunton), who wield a certain measure of influence in the town.

The miners are naturally suspicious of the LGSM and some, as we might expect, are hostile but as the strike wears on and the miner's hardships mount, the town slowly begins to warm to the group and welcome their fundraising efforts.

While the group shuttles between London and Wales, Joe continues his deception until his mother uncovers evidence of his double life, which leads predictably to his alienation from his home. If the group is forced to contend with domestic intolerance, they also have to deal with the relatively new threat of AIDS, which hovers menacingly over the gay community.

Though the story takes place in the mid-80s', which isn't that far in the past, it is astonishing to see how far the western world has come in its attitudes about gay/lesbian rights. If all the battles have yet to be won, at least the film serves as a progress yardmarker.

The British have created a kind of niche for films like Pride; stories that deal with socio-political events but with the eccentric humor for which the English are known. Made in Dagenham and Pirate Radio are but a couple of examples.

I may have chuckled a couple of times but I found the drama a bit more compelling. Though the story is based on fact, it feels like everything about it is canned. I felt I needed only an impression of the characters to chart their actions and behaviors.

The performances are quite good. Ben Schnetzer is quite terrific as the determined realist of the group while Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton are ever exceptional. Paddy Considine could play a pencil sharpener convincingly and make it compelling while Dominic West is also good as the elder gay man of the group who has endured too much intolerance to be altogether optimistic.

The end titles give us biographical information about what became of the various personalities; some successful in various causes, others tragically lost to AIDS. But in spite of the subject matter and its connection to real history, the film just seems like a well-done project rather than something excellently-done. The audience it will play to is the choir so it won't disappoint but won't please either. I would rather come away from a film hating it than feeling etherized indifference, which is my emotional response to Pride. It's an important story about issues that matter even now but that doesn't grant the movie free passage to the empyrean of dramatic/comedic excellence.

If the film had been American, the score would include triumphant orchestral blasts to queue our feelings of elation. That's really all that's missing from the film but bless the Brits for at least avoiding that annoying tendency.

A brother of mine used to say "It's there" whenever he was asked to express an opinion about something he for which he felt a passionate indifference. To assess Pride, one might say:

"It's not bad."
"It's not good."
"It's there."