Origin Review
Theatrical Movie Review - biopic
The first time I saw a trailer for Origin, I was flabbergasted. How could someone possibly take a non-fiction book that is so dense and troubling and turn it into a narrative film that people will want to see? Well, Ava DuVernay was more than up to the task, and Origin is an absolute must-watch film.
This movie is based on the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by American journalist Isabel Wilkerson. The book was published in 2020 and spent over a year on the NYT bestseller list. The book addresses the issue of race but in the context of caste rather than the way that racism is usually discussed. Wilkerson posits that racism is too broad a concept to be addressed adequately and uses her book to suggest a different way of considering how to look at the issue.
The film starts with the murder of Trayvon Martin, the young man who was hunted and murdered in a predominantly white neighborhood by a Latino man. His death and the 911 tapes prompted Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) to dive into the problem of how we talk about racism. When her sister Marion (Niecy Nash-Betts) asks her to explain her thesis in a way that ordinary people can understand it, Isabel explains that skin color didn’t save Jewish people in Nazi Germany or the Dalit people in India from being a lower caste.
Where the book outlines the eight pillars of caste, the movie instead takes a more personal look at the issue, framing it through several stories. It followed the relationship between a German man and a Jewish woman, the work and friendship between a black couple and a white couple who did anthropological work in the South while studying caste in the 1930s, and perhaps most powerfully with the story of a young team of baseball players who watched their black teammate excluded from a swimming party in the 1950s.
These stories are told against the backdrop of Isabel’s life and relationships. We see her struggling with the teachings of her mother (Emily Yancy), who seems to uphold the caste system while recognizing the pain that it causes. And we see her relationship with her white husband (Jon Bernthal) and the way that their marriage challenges caste.
The performances throughout the film are beautiful and thoughtful. Ellis-Taylor is warm and compassionate, and we feel the weight of both her lived experience and what she is trying to accomplish through her writing. Nick Offerman shines in a brief cameo as a plumber, showing the power of human connection despite differences. And I challenge anyone to watch Lennox Simms’s performance as Al Bright dry-eyed as he is toted around a swimming pool on a floaty while being admonished not to touch the water.
The end of the movie does get a little bit clunky as DuVernay spends perhaps a little too much time outlining more of the book, but I feel that can be forgiven with the strength of the rest of the movie.
Origin is a difficult film to watch. Seeing arbitrary systems set up to oppress people and then watching them do just that is exhausting. But as Wilkerson wrote in her book, “We are responsible for our own ignorance or, with time and openhearted enlightenment, our own wisdom.” It is my hope that through this film, those in the dominant caste may become a bit more openhearted and a bit more wise.
Think I really want to see this now. Thanks for the context. Didn't know it was based on the book, "Caste"