HARRIET (2019) FILM REVIEW

***

12A, 125 Mins

A powerhouse performance from Cynthia Erivo can't lift this sanitized biopic.

"Great performance, shame about the film" is a familiar cliche when it comes to reviewing sub-par biopics. At best, biographical dramas can provide in-depth insights into the psyches of historical icons (think 'Raging Bull' (1980)). At worst, they're entirely built around a skin-inhabiting central performance tailored towards awards attention at the expense of a cohesive narrative (think 'Darkest Hour' (2018)).

In its opening moments, 'Harriet' (2019) - which tells the heroic true story of slave-turned-abolitionist Harriet Tubman and her 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people - pitches itself as having a tad more meat than the standard biographical formula. Its early scenes are gruellingly unflinching in their depiction of the back-breaking brutality of slavery; redolent of the horror movie-esque human toll that made '12 Years A Slave' (2013) such an eye-opener. The soundtrack too is mesmerising; conveying a haunting mix of pathos and tragedy through the goosebump-heavy paeans of gospel.
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Holding the whole thing together is a powerhouse performance from Cynthia Erivo who utterly disappears into the part of Tubman with almost hysterical conviction. Having been brilliant in Steve McQueen's 'Widows' (2018) and Drew Goddard's 'Bad Times at the El Royale' (2018), there's no doubt that this will be the role to draw the 32 year old actress to OSCAR recognition. Not least because it's absolutely the kind of performance the Academy loves being one in which a historical figure has to suffer for their craft!

The film too is, for the most part, absolute production line "OSCAR bait" which turns out to be its greatest failing. Despite being an African American herself, Director Kasi Lemmons's by-the-book approach to telling this story beat-by-beat, trope-by-trope mimics the unadultered treatment that several white film-makers have resorted to when making films about black culture; averse to any risks so as not to roughen the smooth, stately road to awards glory.

Beyond the film's harrowing opener, the only flashes of the raw bones of the slave trade are a bizarre combination of fainting fits and hokey hallucinations with several scenes involving Tubman collapsing to the ground only to be plagued by spiritual-esque visions of her past slave life. Those familiar with Tubman's tale will know that she suffered a blow to the head which led her to suffer vivid dreams she described as premonitions from God. That may well have been Director Lemmons's intention to imitate here. However - unlike 'Judy' (2019) which recently utilized flashbacks as a means of delving deep into Judy Garland's childhood traumas - the relationship between the real and surreal here feels jarring and tonally inconsistent with the subject matter.

Basically this biopic rests entirely on its star's shoulders and should easily propel her to the big prize. Yet a little more grit wouldn't have gone amiss to make this slightly sanitized take on a horrifying tale feel a tad more, well, important.

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