1/13/2020 - Harriet (2019) - 5-/10

Milquetoast when I thought it could have been so much more. I dislike having to be negative, but I just don’t feel like it had the passion, pain, and profundity that it deserved. It could have really delivered, with craft or construction, but it just rolled along saplessly. Erivo is good (even though I personally liked what she was doing more in other stuff, like Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows), but the film doesn’t have a ton of heart or exhilaration that I think it needed to truly stand out.

Yes, it is a good and important story, but it didn’t provide any specialness. I didn’t expect 12 Years A Slave, but I also don’t know if there is much that I will remember about Harriet in the years to come. No shots, no events, not really any feelings; it was just an average biopic that strummed an all too familiar and bland tune. Maybe her more Joan of Arc-ey visions, but I can’t say that I know the specifics of Tubman’s life to truly breakdown some of the fact vs. the fantastic. Either way, it just didn’t pack enough punch in any vein for me to gush about it negatively, and certainly not positively.