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The movie is set in 1923 in British Colonial Nigeria with a man named Mister Johnson. He is an oddity - an educated black man who doesn't really fit in with the natives or the British. He works for the local British magistrate and is always scheming, trying to get ahead.
1 June 1930, Croydon, Surrey, England, UK
23 October 1962, London, England, UK
1965, London, England, UK
February1948, Lagos, Nigeria
26 December 1927, Islington, London, England, UK
31 May 1916, Ososa, Ogun State, Nigeria
19 February 1952, New York City, New York, USA
27 April 1965, Imesi-Ile, Nigeria
August 12, 2014
To both the humane Rudbeck, intelligently played by Pierce Brosnan, and the abusive drunkard Gollup, Johnson is a cipher.August 30, 2004
The film works well as far as it goes, but some of the story's emotional power is denatured or lost.January 01, 2000
No great friend of colonialism, Beresford makes his point without losing sight of either history or its mostly unsung heroes.September 07, 2011
Beresford, adapting Joyce Cary's 1939 novel, looks at the psychological relationships inherent in colonialism with some subtlety.January 01, 2000
Although this colonial satire has intelligent aims, it's always a degree or two off the mark.May 24, 2003
Issues of race and racism here are as vague as they were in Driving Miss Daisy, and you are left with the impression Beresford is happy to dodge the issues he dabbles with.January 01, 2000
A standout performance by Maynard Eziashi in the title roleJuly 12, 2003
A richly nuanced and well-acted screen version of Joyce Cary's 1839 novel.August 24, 2003
This just doesn't really work, but then, neither did the novel.July 28, 2008
Beresford and writer William Boyd have delivered a film strangely devoid of emotion and lacking a clear point of view.January 01, 2000
I have seen "Mister Johnson" two times, and both times I admired its sense of time and place, and the thoughtful performances of Eziashi, Brosnan and Woodward.