‘Passing’ Film Review: Rebecca Hall’s Stunning Directorial Debut Provocatively Explores Race
Sundance 2021: Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga play characters who can pass for white, and the drama digs into the roots of their masqueradeCarlos Aguilar | January 30, 2021 @ 8:50 PM Last Updated: January 30, 2021 @ 9:33 PM
Edu Grau/Sundance Institute
Face half-covered with a beautiful hat, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), a biracial woman, wanders into establishments that would be off-limits to her if she couldn’t pass as white. On one of those undercover escapades, she runs into a friend from her youth, Clare (Ruth Negga), now a blonde living full time as a white wife. The ramifications of their camouflage lie at the center of “Passing,” Rebecca Hall’s impressively refined and superbly acted directorial debut, which she adapted from Nella Larsen’s novel set in 1920s Harlem.