Movie Review: 'Passing' Starring Tessa Thompson

Passing stars Tessa Thompson as Irene, an upper middle class woman in 1920s New York City. Though Irene, or Reenie as some called her when she was young, is a black woman she occasionally fancies passing for a white woman using her light skinned complexion and just a little makeup. It’s the 1920s, a time in which even in a big city such as New York, there are privileges denied to people of color. It is while passing for white that Irene runs across a former childhood friend, Claire Bellew, played by Ruth Negga, in the dining hall of an upscale New York Hotel.

Claire insists on dining with Reenie, as she knows her, throwing Reenie into a minor panic until she realizes that Clare is also passing for white and doing so even more successfully. Clare is not only dining in this hotel, she’s staying in one of the nicest rooms in the hotel with her white husband, John, played by Andrew Skarsgard. John is a virulent racist and is not aware that he’s married to a woman of color. John is so careless with his racism that even as he meets Reenie, he doesn’t recognize her as black and proceeds to openly insult black people.

Reenie narrowly escapes before her veneer of politeness cracks and exposes her friend’s remarkable ruse. From there, Reenie determines that she will not see Clare again as seeing her lie so blatantly and dangerously appears to frighten Reenie so deeply that she gives up her opportunities to pass into white society. This however, does not stop Clare from wanting to be part of her life and resume their friendship. Clare sends letters to Reenie and eventually, she shows up on Reenie’s doorstep in Harlem in hopes of winning back her friend.

Feeling sorry for Clare and her outsider status in her own community, Reenie takes pity and invites Clare to a charity gathering she’s organizing surrounding a white writer named Hugh Wentworth (Bill Camp) whose progressive works have won him fans in the black community. At the party is the first time when Clare meets Reenie’s husband, Brian, played by Andre Holland. A successful doctor, Brian is often away from home at odd hours. He manages to make time for this party and he and Clare appear to become fast friends, much to Reenie’s discomfort.

One of the many fascinating aspects of Passing is how writer-director Rebecca Hall frames Clare as a mirror for Reenie. When Irene sees Clare and sees her brazenly passing for white it triggers a shame in Irene that she’s tried to suppress, one that is further magnified by Clare’s husband’s open nastiness when they meet. Her choice to avoid Clare is made at once out of spite and out of shame while guilt and pity is what draws her back to Clare after their initial encounter.

Irene's enmity towards Claire grows as she watches Brian take an interest in Clare and through that relationship, we see more of the insecurity that Irene is desperately keeping at bay. Sleeping beneath all of these simmering emotions, so well portrayed by Tessa Thompson, is fear and jealousy. At once she fears for the risks Clare is taking and is jealous of the freedom and attention her risks bring to her. Clare is far more free and reckless which reflects the more dour and controlled life that Irene lives, minus her own guilty excursions into white society.

Tessa Thompson’s thickly layered performance is at the heart of Passing. Thompson is incredible at locating and highlighting nuances of emotions, expressing big points in minor actions, and using her eyes to communicate as much or more of her pain than she’s ever able to voice. It’s a powerhouse performance aided by Ruth Negga’s charismatic and vibrant supporting performance. The two reflect each other in remarkable ways and purging Clare from her life becomes akin to Irene purging from her life the insecurities and fears that she keeps just bubbling under the surface.

As much as Passing is a parable about societal racism and the strictures of America’s past that still carry weight in the present, Passing is also a piece about two remarkable characters whose flaws are reflected in one another and how each of them process those flaws. In Irene, Clare sees aspects of a life where she is accepted by her own people and never having to live in fear of her secret being uncovered. Though Clare never states her fears about being found out, it’s hard to imagine that it never crossed her mind. More pointed however is her longing to belong to a community and unashamedly be accepted.

In Clare, Irene sees the life that perhaps she could have, one with all of the privilege and freedom not afforded to people of color at that time, in 1920s era New York City. She has a comfortable home life as it is, and a family she loves and cares for, but part of Irene longs for the luxuries denied to her that she guiltily indulges when she chooses to try and pass as white. Seeing Clare so blatantly live that life of privilege is unsettling for Irene and the story snowballs from there to an almost inevitable yet still shocking conclusion.

Being an actor herself, Rebecca Hall knows to give her actors room and let them work. You can sense the freedom she’s giving her actors to explore their feelings and motivations and that looseness is well played opposite the more formal styling of Passing. Hall commented in a press conference with members of the Critics Choice Association recently that she chose the aspect ratio for her movie specifically to place her characters in a smaller box, a way of visually expressing the pressure they are under to conform to the space they are in. It’s one of many brilliant and subtle directorial expressions in Passing.

For a first time feature director, Rebecca Hall shows a master's touch in how she chooses to frame the action and the choices she makes of perspectives, light and shade. On top of being emotionally complex, Passing is an artistically complex movie and the sophisticated images are the perfect ways to enhance the complex stories being told by both Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

Passing is one of the best movies of 2021 and it arrives in a limited theatrical release on October 27th before arriving on Netflix in November of 2021. Look for Passing to be competing in many of the major Academy Award categories next year.