'Harriet' gives Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman the American hero treatment she deserves, courtesy of Cynthia Erivo's performance. Read Peter Travers' review
Minty has visions of the future that come when she communicates with God, The glory of Erivo’s voice as she sings spirituals in the field adds poignance to the scenes when the resistance leader says goodbye to her husband, mother, father and family, and runs away to the free state of Pennsylvania.. A local minister , known her helping fugitive slaves, offers advice. But Minty is pretty much on her own.
The great cinematographer Jon Toll , aided by Terence Blanchard’s celestial score, brings a lustrous beauty to Harriet’s harrowing, 100-mile journey. It’s in Philadelphia that she meets Marie Buchanan , who finds her a paying job as a maid and a gun to protect herself herself against a retaliatory white South. But our heroine finds her real vocation through abolitionist William Still , who records her history and instills her with a desire to lead rescue missions for other runaway slaves.
Minty changes her name to Harriet Tubman, and is lit from within with a fire to lead others out of bondage. Her increasing fame puts her in a dangerous spotlight, especially when Harriet joins the Underground Railroad and becomes a conductor whose reach extends to Canada. Known as a female Moses, Harriet — who sometimes dressed as a man — becomes the face of a movement while resisting becoming a martyr to It.
It’s a big role, written with dimensions of sainthood that might defeat a lesser actor. But Erivo is up to every challenge, never losing Harriet’s compassionate humanity even as the film moves to the Civil War and pumps up the action at the expense of characterization. Tubman’s place in anti-slavery annals looms so large that her life virtually spills off the screen, as if no single movie could hold her.
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