The story of Henriette Delille is anything but ordinary. Based on a true story, The Courage to Love explores a little known time in Lousianna’s history. When the “Americans” were a threat to the way of life, and free women of color were openly kept by rich white benefactors.
The children of such matches, known as Quadroons (if they had a quarter of non-white “blood” or Octaroons (for an eighth) where prepared by their mothers to attend balls, where their suitors would pledge their keeping for a year or a lifetime. The law forbad the marriage between persons of mixed race, so being kept was the next best option for these women, who were is essence trapped between two worlds.
When Henriette’s father leaves the family to marry legitimately, her world falls apart. She vows that she will never be a kept woman and dedicates her life to helping the poor community.
When she meets the love of her life and her equal, a white French doctor who is willing to marry her despite their differences, she must choose between a life of love and marriage in France or a religious life of dedication to her people.
The cast of The Courage to Love includes Vanessa Williams as Henriette and Gil Bellows (of Ally McBeal fame) as Dr. Gerard Gaultier. Bellows does a very good job of playing the passionate and dedicated doctor, right down to his French accent.
I wish I could say the same of Williams, who sometimes appears to bored even to try to make us believe that she is the amazing Henriette. Her accent comes in and out through the whole film, and she makes no concession for how experience and age might have changed the character, playing Henriette as a girl the same way she plays her as a woman older and familiar with hardship.
Still, there is a lot to learn in this film and a lot to cheer. The Courage to Love is a great rainy day film, when you want to learn a little more about our history and at least one real-life woman who made a difference.
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