Pride

It's been a long time since I've seen an ensemble piece with a perfect cast, but that's exactly what I found in Matthew Warchus's fantastically enjoyable LGBT feature Pride.

During the height of Margaret Thatcher's term and the 1984 Miner's strike, Mark (Ben Schnetzer) and his friends at the 'Gay's the Word' bookshop recognise similarities in their struggle for LGBT rights and the struggle of the Miners, so they decide to form a fund-raising group, Lesbians & Gays Support Miners (LGSM). After contacting various Miner's groups with little success, LGSM decides to work directly with a Welsh mining town, with a council representative, Dai (Paddy Considine) coming up to meet them in London with plenty of enthusiasm.

When the group drive down to the town in South Wales, they are met by sceptical residents that are driven by homophobic preconceptions. Though soon enough - with the support of local mother Sian (Jessica Gunning), and council members Hefina (Imelda Staunton) & Cliff (Bill Nighy) - the majority of the town show their support. It's really quite a wonderful story.

Based on true events, Pride manages to be both wonderfully amusing and sincerely real at the same time, but not in a particularly confronting manner. It's the British equivalent of Priscilla, just not quite as flamboyant. At times it does become overly-sentimental, but these moments are few and far between, and are outnumbered by the many great scenes that tell this enthralling story. Though the true reason that it manages to come to fruition so effortlessly on screen, lies in the superb performances from, not just a few, but all the cast.

Pride has at least twelve leading roles, as well as numerous supporting characters, and it's difficult to find a fault in any of them. There are definitely some standouts, namely the hilarious Imelda Staunton (she is one of my favourite, and yet quite underrated British actors), the young George MacKay as Joe, Bill Nighy (because he's Bill Nighy), and Dominic West as Jonathan, in possibly his best role since The Wire. But overall, this is a real team effort and a fantastic job by casting. It's great to see a good ensemble piece and the story of LGSM just screams for a united cast with plenty of shared screen time. 

 

Pride is not only heartwarming, but it's enourmously funny, and manages to be so without being condescending or degrading...apart from perhaps to homophobes. It's an absolute joy to behold.