Owen Gleiberman <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: variety.com, https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/film\/reviews\/the-best-of-enemies-review-taraji-p-henson-sam-rockwell-1203179322\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a world where a movie like \u201cGreen Book\u201d can be raked over the coals for the (alleged) crime of being a quaintly retrograde, patronizing-to-the-point-of-seeming-racist film (for the record, I thought it was none of that), \u201cThe Best of Enemies<\/a>,\u201d another middlebrow inspirational drama about a black person and a white person who start off as sniping adversaries, only to work their way toward a redemptive glow of mutual understanding, feels like a film that a number of people could have the knives out for. And maybe they will. It\u2019s based on a true story, but when you hear the premise the movie almost sounds like it could be a \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d parody of an odd-couple drama of racial healing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Set in Durham, North Carolina, in 1971, \u201cThe Best of Enemies\u201d centers around a two-week-long meeting\/discussion\/powwow of ordinary citizens on the subject of school integration that brought together members of the black and white communities \u2014 and, most dramatically, its two co-chairmen, Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson<\/a>), a local firebrand of a Civil Rights activist, and Claiborne Paul \u201cC.P.\u201d Ellis (Sam Rockwell<\/a>), the head of the Durham chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You watch \u201cThe Best of Enemies\u201d and think: Is this really <\/em>going to be the story of an avowed white supremacist, the sort of man who leads cross burnings and gun-blasting raids, who in a little over two hours of screen time sees his evil ideas fade and his icy heart melt to humanity? Well, yes, it is. (And pigs can fly, and Donald Trump intended his tax cut to help the middle class.) You can feel just how much this film is going to be hated in some quarters, and what those critics will say: that in 2019, the last thing America needs is a message movie about a Klansman who turns into a liberal Teddy bear. To me, though, what\u2019s even more eyebrow-raising is that the film makes the transformation convincing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n