‘Passing’ Review: Intricate Perspectives of Race and Identity in Rebecca Hall’s Powerful Debut Feature

In the very first moments of Passing, the audience is submerged into the observant perspective of its protagonist, listening and watching bystanders make their way down a busy Manhattan street during a summer in the 1920s. Immediately Irene - the film’s central character - becomes the lens through which Passing is experienced, a woman seemingly watching her life and the rest of the world go by from an isolated position, complex for many to fathom. Highly entrancing, Passing is the sophisticated directorial feature from Rebecca Hall, best known for her acting performances for film and television. After premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the film’s distribution rights were acquired by Netflix for around 16 million dollars, before later reappearing at the New York Film Festival to rave reviews this past September. Based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, a prolific writer of the Harlem Renaissance, Passing concentrates on the rekindled friendship of two bi-racial women and the existential tensions that build as they are drawn deeper into one another’s lives, despite the divergent paths that they have taken. Backed by an exceptional cast including Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, and André Holland, Passing serves as a rumination on race and identity, working in a period setting to address social implications that still affect our world today.

On a hot summer day Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), a bi-racial, upper-middle-class mother and wife, seeks reprieve from the scorching heat on a rooftop hotel restaurant in Manhattan. In the nearly-empty restaurant, Irene defaults to her natural custom of scanning her surroundings, appraising those around out of curiosity and maybe, concern. During this inspection, Irene’s gaze falls upon a beautiful blonde woman, and to Irene’s confoundment, the blonde stares right back as though she has seen Irene before. When the perplexing woman makes her way across the room towards Irene and begins to speak, she finally comprehends the blond to be Clare Bellew, a friend from childhood long forgotten about, portrayed on screen by Ruth Negga. To Irene, Clare is nearly unrecognizable, her identity only jumping out in Irene’s mind due to Clare’s laugh. When Irene acknowledges this change Clare addresses it brazenly: after finishing school she married a white man and started her new life as a passingly white woman, hiding her heritage from all (including her husband) and leaving her past in New York behind. Although Irene is initially startled by Clare’s altered existence, she is drawn to her carefree joie de vivre that greatly contrasts Irene’s own buttoned-up personality, and the women soon rekindle their friendship. While both women share similar degrees of social autonomy due to their well-off financial situations, Irene lives in Harlem with her doctor husband and two boys, ingrained in the rich African American culture of the times. Clare’s life is in total contradiction, however, living a lonely existence with her racist white husband who is constantly away for business and a daughter off in a European boarding school. As the women reconnect and grow closer, they begin to recognize elements in one another's lives that they both desperately desire for themselves. Slowly, unseen tensions and insecurities begin to creep into their friendship, affecting the well-balanced life that Irene struggles to create for her family.

While Passing is narratively compelling due to the strength of its source material, the film’s acting achievements powerfully assist in conveying the great existential and emotional conflicts of the work, specifically regarding the performances of Thompson and Negga. Thompson subtly portrays the character of Irene with many nuances, reflecting the internal conflict experienced by Irene as she struggles to shield her family from the deep-rooted racism in America, along with the toil of finding contentment within her social positioning in life. Conversely to Thompson’s delicate performance, Negga embodies the effervescent personality of Clare with unabashed confidence, adopting the attractive charisma of her character and drawing eyes in every room she enters despite the choices she has made that have led her to immense unhappiness. These contrasting performances collide on-screen to create dynamic chemistry between the characters full of appreciation and unease unlike any friendship usually portrayed in cinema.

Shot by Spanish cinematographer Eduard Grau, Passing uses black and white imagery along with drastic visual contrast to create a timeless language for the film supportive of its complex themes of identity, instead of existing solely to serve Passing’s period setting. Grau also shot the film in a boxy  4:3 ratio that draws focus to the emotional state of its female leads, enhancing the confinement they experience. In charge of Passing’s musical score is Blood Orange’s frontperson Dev Hynes, who uses jazz inspirations to pay homage to the musicality of the Harlem Renaissance, employing repetitive piano motifs to help move the tension of the narrative along. In regards to the ingenuity of the film’s direction, Rebecca Hall crafts the film with a quiet, steady hand; upholding the source material while also building a detailed pace that greatly serves the film’s performances and screenplay. At just over 90 minutes, Passing maintains a rhythm that builds emotional suspense without falling into the territory of an overwrought melodrama - a fate that could have easily occurred if the film were left in the hands of a less-capable filmmaker.

Upon further examination, Passing does not serve only as a work looking to explore the implications of the societal limitations caused by racism in the U.S, but also the difficult questions of personal identity, as showcased by Irene and Clare. Both women are offered a level of privilege due to the color of their skin and their financial situations which alienates them from their surroundings, living in-between spaces that are neither black or white, racially and metaphorically. Irene constantly expresses that she has everything she has ever wanted, but is still unsatisfied with her conventional role within her household. When she and her family are faced with the realities of racism, she chooses to skirt around the problems in order to protect her children from the actualities of our world - ultimately hindering their understanding by denying the cruel truths of society. Conversely, Clare makes the grave choice of passing in her life to escape the social castes of the African American experiences of the times, but ultimately buries an important part of her identity that is not reawakened until she reunites with Irene. While Passing conveys the dangers of exotifying others in society, this exotification is crucial to the ambiguity of how the film operates. At times, Passing delves into erotic, desirous undertones that reflect the longing and uncertainty felt by its characters, allowing for a certain universality to work through the narrative that many audiences can connect with.

Rebecca Hall’s glorious, complex feature debut Passing offers critical explorations into race and identity, working through a period setting to connect these important topics to the modern era, where society is working to acknowledge issues plaguing our world. Passing expertly leaves much room for interpretation to reflect the challenging positions of its main characters as they work to navigate the world, making it a film that many audiences can relate to. Already receiving much positive critical attention, Passing has accrued five Gotham Award nominations early on in the awards season, including Best Feature, Breakthrough Director, Screenplay, Leading Performance, and Supporting Performance. Rest assured, his film will continue to be a major player in the awards season as the year comes to a close. 

Passing is currently running a limited theatrical release and is now available to stream on Netflix.

4.5/5