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Clare has done something that shocks Irene - or does it, really? - to her core: She’s passing as white. While different audiences will bring different levels of understanding to “Passing,” Hall doesn’t spoon-feed what transpires between the women, trusting that people will get it long before Clare explains away her current state during their extended visit. What, she seems to think, does she see?Ĭhildhood friends who haven’t seen each other in nearly a decade, Irene is shocked to realize that the white woman staring her down isn’t white at all it’s Clare who’s bi-racial, just like Irene. Stopping off at luxe hotel known for its breezy rooftop cafe, Irene is discomfited by the gaze of a white woman sitting just across from her. The question of whether they don’t pick up on her racial identity or don’t care about it lingers, particularly as Irene continues with her errands with the same measure of concealment. She’s so careful that even a pair of white women who accidentally drop a “pickaninny” doll at her feet don’t balk when Irene, a Black woman, returns it to them. Hall sanded away some of the book’s more convoluted plot points, setting it almost entirely in Harlem (there is no Chicago flashback here) and doing away with a handful of characters to better focus on its central stars, Irene “Rene” Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry Bellew (Ruth Negga).Īs the film opens, a restrained Irene navigates her way through a sweltering New York City summer day, tucking her face inside her hat all the better to, well, maybe not hide exactly, but at least obscure. Shot in luminous black-and-white by cinematographer Eduard Grau (a choice that, given the material, might sound gimmicky, and is not), Hall also opted for a boxed-in 4:3 aspect ratio, all the better to heighten the film’s constant tension and the sense that its characters can’t escape the confines of their lives. Like Larsen, Hall hails from a mixed background, and her own experiences with racial presentation and expectation help root a complicated story that resists any and all hammy or heavy-handed twists. It’s a calling-card work, and in first-time director Rebecca Hall’s capable hands, “Passing” becomes a similarly seminal feature film, as beautiful and bruising and knotty as the novel that inspired it. The book, like its predecessor “Quicksand,” is run through with details culled from Larsen’s own life, including her experiences as a mixed-race woman in a time of heightened racial division. The 15 Best Survival Movies, from 'Cast Away' to 'The Revenant'

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