This weekend "Winnie Mandela" will be released.
The film, starring Terrence Howard and Jennifer Hudson, chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela from her childhood through her marriage and her husband's incarceration.
The movie premiered at last year's Toronto Film Festival where it was met with a negative reception. As a result, the film was long-delayed and had a hard time finding a distributor. Critics called the movie superficial, with David Rooney of the Hollywood Reporter stating: "This one-dimensional biopic reduces important 20th century political figures to cardboard cutouts."
Linda Barnard of the Toronto Star was similarly underwhelmed. "It won't satisfy history students curious about this polarizing figure, nor fans of its star, Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson," wrote Barnard.
Rick Groen of the Globe and Mail gave the film two stars out of four and wrote, "Winnie begins as hagiography and ends in hellish confusion."
Jam! Movies' Jim Slotek thought the film was half-baked: "For decades, the Mandelas have been among the world's most examined couples. Few examinations could have been as superficial as this."
The new movie currently has a 0 percent on movie review site Rotten Tomatoes and if it continues that way it will become the second worst reviewed film of the year. "Getaway," starring Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez, also scored terrible reviews this past weekend with a 2 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.
"Winnie Mandela" marks the first film based on Mandela's life this year. In November the Wienstein Company will release "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" starring Idris Elba and Naomi Harris.
"Winnie Mandela" also stars Elias Koteas, Weny crewman and Aubrey Poo. The new movie will be released by RLJ Entertainment/Image Entertainment.
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