Hey, I like a slave movie just like the next guy, but do they have to be so emotional??? Okay, yes, I understand that dealing with slavery is a lot like dealing with... well, anything slave-related and there is a significant amount of baggage that comes along with it, but it just feels that every time a movie like this is released it's more about how much of a lock for that Oscar it can be rather than telling a great story. The story of Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped from his family and sold into slavery for the next 12 years is a heart-wrenching and harrowing tale, but the whole time I couldn't help but feel as though each scene was shot with a picture of a gold statue in front of the director's eyes.
There are moments of prolonged camera shots that are overt and unnecessary. The dialogue is strangely written as if it were for a play, not a movie. Even the most uneducated slaves still speak better and more educated than most people today. But, the performances are fantastic. Mostly Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender. Ejiofor plays Solomon, an innocent man who only wants to rejoin society as a free man and get back to his family. Fassbender plays Edwin Epps, Solomon's malevolent slave owner. He's a disgusting and horrid human being with a chip on his shoulder and an eye on Solomon. Solomon's journey is a miraculous one, but one that just seems a little bit too dramatic and searching for that Best Picture announcement. I know it's ridiculous to call a movie like this overly dramatic, but come on... it ain't no Amistad.
B
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