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Five years after his directorial bow – the underwhelming Antwone Fisher – Denzel Washington scoops up the megaphone again for another true (albeit heavily fictionalised) story. This one’s inspired by a little-known episode from the Depression-era South, following a debating team at the all-black Wiley College in Marshal, Texas. Washington also stars as Melvin B Tolson, a real-life radical English teacher who plays the part of team leader for all his inspirational worth: offering up barnstorming speeches, sucking on an unlit pipe, as he cajoles, berates and goads his team of students into fighting shape. “Debate is a blood sport,” he informs them, “and words are your weapons.”
Among those rising to the challenge are bad(ish) boy Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), aspiring lawyer and first female debater Samantha (Jurnee Smollett), hard-working Hamilton Burgess ( Jermaine Williams) and the fresh-faced, 14-year-old son of the college’s philosophy professor (Forest Whitaker), James (Denzel Whitaker, no relation to either Washington or Forest).
Washington and his young cast all turn in spirited performances, but are ultimately let down by formulaic writing. A laudable, old-fashioned attempt to highlight a footnote in black history, it's a three-star film that strains to be more.
