Trick of the light
PASSING
Set in sweltering 1920s New York and shot in crisp black and white, this adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel is a beautiful and exceptionally thoughtful directorial debut by Brit actress Rebecca Hall. It considers an aspect of race seldom contemplated: the practice of a black person of mixed race or light skin “passing” as white in a society that privileges the pale.
Harlem-living doctor’s wife Irene (Tessa Thompson) unexpectedly reunites with) – a black woman living off the spoils of her deceptive marriage to a rich, charming bigot (the reliably frightening Alexander Skarsgård). But as the lonely Clare attaches herself to Irene’s household for the comforting familiarity it brings, Irene’s own conflicted feelings about race and identity become clouded by jealousy.
