Harriet

Kasi Lemmons' Harriet is a star vehicle for Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple) that strikes familiar chords in its depiction of slaver tyranny along with a few fresh notes in its treatment of the dynamic between its black character. London-born Erivo is Minty (later Harriet) whose fiery temperament has made her a liability to her resentful young master Gideon (Britisher Joe Alwyn). When bills advertising her sale are posted about, she leaves her husband (Zackary Momoh), a free black man with whom she cannot live, and escapes the Maryland plantation that has been her home. She heads for Philadelphia with the help of a local preacher (Vondie Curtis-Hall), and there she meets a free black abolitionist (Leslie Odom Jr.) who helps her find lodging and work and unwittingly stokes a fire for her to return south to lead her family to freedom. And thus she begins her journey to becoming a conductor for the Underground Railroad. The film's treatment of the many dimensions of blacks' relationship to enslavement is its most interesting aspect and I wish there was more of it rather than the long sequences of Harriet running from pursuers, which, of course, is the core of her story but is certainly not all of it. Scenes between Harriet and her husband, her parents, and the free blacks of Philadelphia are all exceptionally well done and insightful. The interactions with slavers, menacing but trite. Also, the spiritual aura in which the Harriet is cast will undoubtedly resonate with some audience but it does not enhance her persona. Rather, it seems to diminish her bravery and brilliance.