Harriet
If there was one frontrunner early in awards season, it was Cynthia Erivo for her role as Harriet Tubman in Harriet. Everyone thought this performance was a lock for nomination as Best Actress at the Academy Awards but as time progresses and the film started to be seen by critics and audiences, the buzz has started to drastically cool. The overall narrative surrounding the film turned mixed at best yet after a strong box office debut and a rare A+ CinemaScore, the fire once again lit beneath this Academy Award hopeful feature. Harriet is a film with such a strong and incredible story that the filmmakers take and nearly ruin with some of the strangest editing and narrative choices to be seen all year.
The story of Harriet Tubman is naturally compelling and inspiring: a slave who escapes her bondage and returns time and time again to save more and more slaves from their torture. The film really is conscious of showing the scale of Harriet's story and what she was able to accomplish despite everything going against her. Has a film ever really explored the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, an act that allowed slave-hunters to hunt fugitive slaves in any state — making once sanctuaries like Philadelphia now just as dangerous as the South? Perhaps not, but writers Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons do great justice to showcase the truly haunting atrocities that once caged the U.S.
Harriet does a good job showing that the odds get stacked more and more against the titular character, but instead of capitalizing on the bravery and smarts that Harriet used to overcome these odds, the movie makes the truly wild decision to credit said choices of Harriet’s not really to the freedom icon but God himself. If the film wants to use religion as a guiding force for Harriet morally, that is one thing; to have actual scenes where Harriet faints and sees visions from God showing her paths and information is a choice that takes away from the plight and intensity of each battle she fought. These scenes are horribly edited by editor Wyatt Smith, adding tacky filters over footage most of the time — an element that undeniably takes away from the weight of actual accomplishments, remixed into a form of hollow intensity due to the supposed divine intervention and guidance. In fact, the editing in this film from Wyatt Smith throughout is shockingly bad. The montages all evoke a sense of cheap trickery to advance the story and multiple scenes are just horribly constructed, especially when the film tries to focus on more than one character. It quickly gets lost between multiple perspectives and really struggles to put together something that feels compelling or complete.
Considering the strong humanitarian story and socially relevant themes, it boggles the mind why the filmmakers would go through with this idea. Clearly knowing the further issues this specific direction causes, they add lines of dialogue supposed to combat this including one where Harriet stands up for herself saying that despite being led by God, it was her feet making the journey — which is true. This does not make Harriet look bad or change the opinions of the audience on Harriet herself, but it does hurt the narrative this movie is trying to build. It does not help that outside of this, the movie is tolerably basic and bland. Harriet is a very standard biopic. Continually, the filmmaking got in the way of it ever going beyond such a point of immense impact. Whenever there were not cheap flashes to messages from God, the movie struggles to find a solid tone or emotional center.
The visuals and plot are evidently dramatic, but the score from Terence Blanchard is always off, either being weirdly upbeat or strangely dark in tonally-improper places. Looking at 2019 in total, this might be perhaps the most underwhelming soundtrack/score of the year. Furthermore, one that completely ruins multiple scenes and never adds to a single scene throughout the movie. With that said, Cynthia Erivo provides a reliable performance, that being said it is difficult to determine how much of that is because of how good her performance is or if it is the context of her specific role in this film. The acting in this feature, aside from Erivio, ranges from forgettable to terrible. There is no emotional power behind any one other character and therefore performance in this feature, with Erivio being the one element that feels inspired even then though she is hurt by the subpar material afforded.
Not only is her character continually hurt by choices such as the flashes to God but she is never given THAT scene to chew on. Never given the chance to create something truly memorable and scene-stealing that will stick with the audience, which could come back to bite her this awards season. There is still a decent chance she makes it in, as well as a possible future where she misses completely due to being pulled down by a messy movie and screenplay that cut her legs out from under her. If anything, the cinematography by John Toll, does have its stunning moments — sadly often hurt by the editing — and the costume design by Paul Tazewell, is not anything revolutionary but is effective and memorable enough in a movie filled with such forgettable and weak qualities outside of it.
At the end of the day, Harriet is a competent film that does a decent enough job at looking at the story of Harriet Tubman but seriously hurts itself with some crazed filmmaking decisions. This could have at least been a standard-but-effective biopic but actively chose to become something more and results in something far less in a sad mess of a film that is difficult to even recommend.
Harriet is released November 1st in the U.S and 22nd in the U.K.
