Kelvin Harrison Jr is the somewhat surprising choice to play French-Caribbean musician Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint Georges in this new biopic from director Stephen Williams and writer Stefani Robinson. He was the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, who became celebrated in the mid 18th century French society as a violinist-composer and fencer.
Chevalier had the potential to tell an important story, but Harrison never looks comfortable in period costume and the script has a lot of anachronistic dialogue. The opening scene of Joseph duelling violins with Mozart is absurd and overlong. It then becomes much too soapy as he falls for the married singer Marie Josephine de Montalembert. When the spoilt and arrogant Chevalier suddenly finds a social conscience as the revolution brews, it does not feel real at all.
On the plus side, some of the supporting performances are fine, particularly by Sian Clifford, Lucy Boynton, Minnie Driver, and Marton Csokas. However, as the story veers too far from the truth and loses credibility, there is only so much they can do.
Rating: 4.5 out of 10