Passing

Passing
Starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, Andre Holland, Alexander Skarsgard
Directed by Rebecca Hall

"Passing" is a term that's defined as when a person classified as a member of a racial group is accepted or perceived as a member of another. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the United States to describe a person of color or of multiracial ancestry who assimilated into the white majority to escape the legal and social conventions of racial segregation and discrimination (wikipedia). While it was more prevalent back in the early-to-mid 1900s by African Americans to be seen as equals, it's still something that happens even today. The majority of the time it's when an African American person who has a lighter skin tone takes on the identity of a white person in order to better fit in, achieve financial success, find love, and acceptance in a white majority world that's still incredibly racist. It's basically leading a double life, and as it goes with anyone living two lives at once, there's always the concern that their secret will be revealed, and the repercussions of it could be entirely damaging.

Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) is a successful African American woman living in Harlem in the 1920s, whose husband Brian (Andre Holland) works as a doctor. She lives in a big brownstone with her husband, two sons, and maid Zu (Ashley Ware), but even she understands the limited constructs due to her color, and one day she attempts to "pass" as white, and is rather successful at it. While at a fancy restaurant, she spots Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga) staring at her, and she finally approaches Irene and says they were friends twelve years ago, and Irene finally remembers. She's surprised because Clare looks white, and she admits that she's been "passing" as white for awhile, and even married a white man named John (Alexander Skarsgard), who's an unabashed racist. At first Irene is turned off by Clare especially when John confronts her not knowing that she's black, but soon the two re-kindle their friendship. Clare is the total opposite of Irene - fun, lively, elegant and seemingly fearless, to Irene's more subdued, low-tone, bland appearance. It doesn't take long before Irene is feeling pangs of jealousy toward Clare, especially when Brian seemingly has more fun with her than Irene. Meanwhile, Clare struggles with her "passing" identity and idolizes Irene's ability to be calm and cool in every situation, but both maintain a constant state of worry that Clare will be found out, and are concerned about the possible fallout.

I cannot begin to understand the plight of the African American community, but "Passing" seems to be a way to express a desire for some of them to fit in with a society that's overwhelmingly negative toward the pigment of their skin, but does so in a uniquely different way. In my studies of passing, more often than not, the person who "passes" for white and who wants to return to their natural color is met with ire and contempt by those that they abandoned, seeing them as traitors or ashamed of their ancestry. "Passing" takes a different viewpoint here, where Clare would've been more accepted if she had returned to her African American roots than remain hiding as a white woman, and it's a desire she longs to achieve as she emulates Irene and essentially wants her life. It's almost "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" in that Irene is concerned that Clare is usurping her world: Irene's children adore her, her husband seemingly wants to spend more time with her than Irene, Irene's friends emulate her, and she seemingly has it all - but she also wants to be black again, and has chosen Irene as the person to parallel. Clare keeps it no secret that she covets Irene's life, and having thrown away her Black heritage for money, she comments after Irene tells her that she has everything: "Why, to get the things I want so badly, I'd do anything. Hurt anyone. Throw anything away. I'm not safe," Clare tells Irene, which makes Irene even more concerned that her life would soon be Clare's for the taking.

The film is a heavily layered storytelling experience, based off the 1927 novella by Nella Larsen, and directed by first-time director Rebecca Hall, who also has experienced this form of passing in her own life - even though she's a white woman, her grandfather was a Black man who passed as white. When she was brought on to direct the project, she made one demand - it be shot in black-and-white. She told the San Francisco Chronicle that "this is a film about categories and an obsession with fitting everyone into containers or the containers that everyone else puts you in as well. The irony of black-and-white films is they're gray, there's nothing black and white about it, ever. And also, the abstraction of being able to play with shadow and light and point out the construction of race, that is a sort of slippery reality. In black-and-white film, I'm able to play with lighting states and play with exposure, and not do it with makeup, but do it with overexposed rooms, and white walls and white outfits." She more than achieved her goals here, as both women seem effortlessly able to pass as white at any given moment due to the nature of the shoot itself, along with being shot in a more condensed 4:3 format which heralds back to the classic black-and-white films of old. It's through this backdrop that we're given a deeper look at these two ladies, the struggles they face, and the continual feel of tug-and-pull that they go through.

Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga give powerful performances as Irene and Clare, and without them the film wouldn't have any impact at all. Thompson plays Irene with a sincerity that's endearing, but also showcases vulnerability that Clare can immediately exploit for her own benefit. She doesn't want her husband talking about lynchings, but he continues to do so because he wants his sons to know what's happening in the world, while she wants them to be happy. She quietly endures the budding relationship between Clare and Brian, even allowing them to go out by themselves while she stays home, and you can sense the palpable sadness that she emulates without saying a word. Yet there's also moments of self-awareness that makes her more than just a wallflower in the story. "We're all of us passing for something or other," she says, "aren't we?"

Ruth Negga, on the other side, plays Clare with a heavily layered feeling that threatens to crack at any moment. She's married to an unabashed racist (for money) and has to conceal her Blackness to him and even her daughter, even though he notices year after year that she keeps getting darker, giving her a very inappropriate nickname that shocks Irene when she first hears it. Yet despite living in the lap of luxury, Clare desires to return to her Black roots and idolizes Irene for being able to seemingly have the best of both worlds, and sets out to covet that which Irene possesses - or at least that's what Irene thinks. Negga never allows us to fully understand Clare's intentions, which allows her to play her part almost as a ghost: mysterious, always hiding, and in a sense being terrorizing without being too overt about it. The duel between herself and Irene is equal parts respect and jealousy, and intertwines as a tragically beautiful story.

"Passing" is a stunning directorial debut by Rebecca Hall which sheds light on the passing identity that African Americans go through in order to gain acceptance and notoriety, told perfectly by Tessa Thomson and Ruth Negga at the top of their respective games.

The Score: A+