Belle (PG)
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This is based on real historical people and events, though it's greatly fictionalized and maybe doesn't happen in quite the proper order. But whatever, it's a damn good story.

It begins in 1769, according to text that appears onscreen at the start of the film, and sets up some stuff about the state of Britain at the time, vis a vis the slave trade. A naval captain named John Lindsay was apparently in love with a slave in the West Indies, though we never meet her. She has recently died, so Captain Lindsay takes his 8-year-old daughter (whom he has apparently never met until now) to Britain, to live with his uncle and aunt, William and Elizabeth Murray (Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson), the Earl and Lady of Mansfield, who will raise her as their niece. (They're called "Mansfield" more often than "Murray," which I think is helpful in distinguishing Lady Mansfield from her other niece, who is also named Elizabeth Murray.) Captain Lindsay's daughter is named Dido Elizabeth Belle, though she now takes the surname Lindsay. (Despite the movie's title, Dido is almost never referred to as "Belle." I kept thinking maybe that would change at some point, but it never did. Which is fine, if a bit confusing.) But anyway, he immediately has to return to his job in the Navy. His aunt and uncle weren't exactly thrilled to become the guardians of a young girl who happened to be half Black. But they were already the guardians of another girl of a similar age, the aforementioned niece Elizabeth Murray. (I don't think we ever see her father, who had remarried and apparently cut his daughter out of his will, or whatever.) Anyway, Dido and Elizabeth become best friends, and the movie then flashes forward to when they're young women. (A year is not given, which is fine, because, you know, this is the point when various historical events that happened in different years are going to be happening at roughly the same time for the sake of the story.)

We learn from a letter that Captain Lindsay had died, so we don't see him again. And I get the sense that Dido (now played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) never actually saw him in all the years that the story skips over, which seems a bit odd to me. But he leaves her an inheritance of £2,000 a year. Which means she doesn't need to find a husband, which is kind of a relief for her aunt and uncle. However, they still have to worry about finding a husband for Elizabeth, since they know that when they die, their estate will go to her absentee father. And unless she has a husband, that means she'll be destitute. So, the movie does the whole standard British period drama thing. But it also does a lot more. Which I'll get to in a bit. But first I should say, Elizabeth had her sights set on James Ashford, whose mother, Lady Ashford (Miranda Richardson) is keen to secure a good match for both James and his younger brother, Oliver. And Oliver is interested in Dido, though both his mother and brother are against that. Because, you know, they're racists. Meanwhile, Dido and Elizabeth's uncle William (whom they call "Papa"), takes on a student, John Davinier. He's the son of a reverend, but he wants to become a lawyer like William (who is in fact the Lord Chief Justice of England). And it soon becomes apparent that despite not having a title or money, John would be a better match for Dido than Oliver.

While all this is going on, William is hearing a case involving a slave ship called the Zong, whose crew had drowned all the slaves it was carrying before reaching England, and was now trying to receive compensation from their insurance company. However, the insurers don't want to pay. And... John doesn't think they should. He doesn't think slaves should be insured at all, because they shouldn't be property in the first place. And William... well, I think he feels the same way as John about it, but at the same time, he wants to be sure that his ruling is impartial and in keeping with the law. And he's apprehensive about what his ruling could mean for the slave trade as an entire industry, which could have a huge impact on the British economy. (A point is also made that it could be problematic if his ruling were perceived as being influenced by his relationship to Dido, whom he has come to love as a daughter.) And of course Dido eventually takes a keen interest in the case, despite her uncle's attempt to shield her from the harsh realities of the world. And she ends up helping John in his efforts to affect the case.

And... man, I'm leaving out a ton of details. But I want to say I think the movie works very well as a romantic period drama, but it works even better as a social commentary not only on racism, but also sexism and the whole class system that was in place at that time. The point is made that women weren't much more than men's property, because without an inheritance, they would have no means of supporting themselves, since they weren't really allowed to work. And the idea of marrying for love was seen as kind of absurd, because all that really mattered were titles and money. (That is, for any family that had either one of those things to begin with.) It was all this sort of perverse game of ensuring that matches didn't lower one's status (and therefore the status of one's family), and preferably improved one's status. And I just felt like the movie did a very good job of tying all these things (race, sex, class, justice, and yes, romance) together. Of course there's plenty of drama where it seems like things could go wrong on both personal and political levels, but ultimately there's a happy ending all around. (Except for the Ashford clan, but they don't really deserve a happy ending.)