Harriet (2019)
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Harriet Movie Review
Harriet is a 2019 biographical film directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring Cynthia Erivo. It’s a rather standard biopic that does benefit from its strong central performance.
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“I’m gonna be free or die“
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It is the story of heroic abolitionist Harriet Tubman, following her escape from slavery to the dangerous missions she led to liberate hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad. This is obviously a very important figure in American history, and it’s a story fit for the big screen treatment.
Unfortunately, the execution is so mediocre. The movie has nothing to say about this woman by only portraying her straightforwardly, and it depicts all of its events in such a regular manner too. It needed more life to it as it was only present in a couple of thrilling action sequences so to speak. It has its intense, entertaining scenes, but the majority are almost like a play, and not that cinematic in my opinion.
Where Harriet truly shines is in its main acting performance. Yes, Cynthia Erivo got into the Best Actress Oscar race at the last minute and seemingly not deservingly, but her performance is admittedly very strong, quite emotional and particularly good during the film’s darkest, moving moments. She actually lifted this film to much greater heights, and she basically is this film. Without her, it would have been quite bland. Erivo, thus, continues a strong streak of performances/roles after memorable turns in ‘Widows’ and ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’.
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The other actors did an okay job, but are much more forgettable in comparison to her. This is basically a one-woman show in its entirety for better and for worse. I found the cinematography solid with some of the imagery being quite memorable and well composed. The film looks and sounds good, but the direction from Kasi Lemmons is nothing to write home about, the pacing is quite mediocre and the same goes for the dialogue which has its bright spots for sure as some conversations are great, but mostly it wasn’t all that great.
Cynthia Erivo basically is Harriet the movie. Without her, this biopic would have been quite bland. She delivered a very strong, admirable performance in a great role, and is the only reason to see this film which is competently made, but quite uninspired in direction, pacing and the overall script.
