Full trailer for ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’ promises the Mandela you didn’t know

The Weinstein Company has announced it is celebrating “Mandela Day” (today is Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday and, happily, he seems to be getting a bit better after his recent health scare) by dropping a full-length trailer for Justin Chadwick’s upcoming “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” It’s a bigger slice than that teaser we got last weekend, which was purely about capitalizing on star Idris Elba’s presence at the multiplexes with “Pacific Rim.”

Elba is a terrific actor and he’s inhabiting the character confidently here. But that having been said, I can’t help but feel like something is slightly off. I guess it’s simply the physical differences in the two men, though that seems shallow and unfair. The history of cinema is full of examples of people taking on real-life roles without bearing a huge resemblance and making us forget. Maybe that’s in store yet with this film.

The Weinsteins have a ton of films in play, as usual. This one is positioned just after the Thanksgiving holiday, which is where they’ve had success with “The King’s Speech,” “The Artist” and “Silver Linings Playbook” in recent years. Other films in play include “August: Osage County,” “The Butler,” “Fruitvale Station,” “Grace of Monaco,” “The Immigrant” and “Philomena.” What will stick?

Check out the new trailer for Chadwick’s biopic via Yahoo! Movies below and tell us what you think.

“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” opens November 29.

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