[Originally posted on 09.12.19 at the Toronto International Film Festival]
Famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman is not on the American $20 bill yet, thanks to political Trumpian bureaucracy and delay, but even the consideration puts her historical and cultural importance into immediate context. Her courageous story as a political activist and risk-taking Underground Railroad leader is legendary, larger than life, and more than deserving of a fitting cinematic treatment. Director Kasi Lemmons (“Eve‘s Bayou“) and Tony-winning actor Cynthia Erivo (“Widows“) try their best to do her life and legacy justice in the biopic “Harriet,”but the results— beyond the actresses’ terrific performance— are flat, familiar, and largely uninspired in the tradition of unremarkable, eager-to-please awards bait.