A Reel Review: HARRIET

Harriet Tubman, the slave-turned-abolitionist, has been one of America’s greatest heroes for over 200 years. It’s a crime that her story has taken this long to finally arrive on the big screen, and with such an important character in the fight for civil rights, the pressure is on for director Kasi Lemmons with HARRIET. 

Harriet (Cynthia Erivo), escapes from captivity from a plantation owned by Gideon (Joe Alwyn), and his mother (Jennifer Nettles). Making her way to Philadelphia, she connects with William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), a writer and abolitionist who connects her with the Underground Railroad, which enables Harriet to return to the South and free over 70 slaves. 

HARRIET dutifully and efficiently ticks off all the boxes in the story of Harriet Tubman, beginning with her captivity by ruthless and racist owners, her daring escape, and eventual risky return to break her husband and family out of chains. Plot-wise there isn’t much to it, as the film mostly deals with her travelling back and forth from Philly to the South with more freed slaves. 

While the story itself works fine, HARRIET lacks the emotional swell that we would expect out of a story this important. It feels like a first-draft of the script, as just enough dialogue is given to establish what’s going on…but no further. The movie feels like it’s in a big hurry and things suffer for it. Bizarreness comes in with the effort to develop Harriet as a character; she’s a woman of deep-faith, and she often falls (literally collapses) into deep conversations with God. Once there, she has visions of the future which helps her make her decisions…often simple as which way to turn. It’s hokey, makes her look like she has super-powers, and feels way out of place. It’s accurate in history, but on film it just doesn’t work. 

Director Kasi Lemmons keeps the pacing brisk, but the humor non-existent, and somehow forgets to inject any sort of drama or tension. The film is unforgivingly dull, and no one will feel the slightest rise in pulse. The cinematography looks great, and the score by Terence Blanchard sounds fine…but the music is often too loud in some places and too overbearing in others. It’s an over-scored movie to the point of annoyance. 

Acting is excellent. Cynthia Erivo, despite the oddness of her character’s super-insight, does very well with what she is given to work with. It’s a movie of long speeches for her, and she carries the film with no issues. The rest of the cast is very good, with Joe Alwyn proving to have some great bad-guy chops. 

The film ends on a high note, and drives home the importance of Harriet Tubman in American history. The movie gets where it needs to go, but it does so in very plain, un-inspired fashion. Harriet the hero certainly deserves her own movie, but she deserved just a little better. 

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it