AMAZING GRACE [PG]
More powerful than Steven Spielberg’s Amistad is Michael Apted’s impassioned chronicling of England’s abolitionist movement of the late 18th and early 19th century. Strikingly handsome BBC staple Ioan Gruffudd, whom American audiences will know best as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic in the Fantastic Four movies, is dazzling as the furious parliamentarian William Wilburforce, who dedicated most of his life to eradicating slavery throughout the Empire. The supporting cast is fine, helping Apted meld his documentary sensibilities with drama even better than he did with Enigma. This is a far cry from the dry, ongoing Up! series that Apted has been visiting every seven years since 1964; here, he fully involves us in the abject tragedy that slavery was, dredging up an important vestigial guilt for our part as humans in it. –Robert Newton