Good Movie but could have been better

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2014)

In my opinion, this movie certainly has many positives but unfortunately has also has many negatives. To start off the original story was both remarkable and compelling. There was plenty of material there to work from without much need for embellishment. Overall the acting throughout the film was generally quite good especially the acting of Chiwetal Ejiofor. I thought his performance in many ways kept the movie grounded and more realistically compelling. I also thought the cinematography and period set designs were also very good.
On the other hand there were several aspects of the film that for me just didn't work well which is why I could not rate the movie any higher than I did. Steve McQueen may end of being a great director but I feel he is just too reliant on gimmicks and cliché directorial techniques. For example, some the flash-back, flash-forward segments were confusing and unnecessary, especially the micro back and forth scenes where he was actually being abducted. I don't know what point he was trying to make there at a time when the continuity of the scene should have been clear and instead was unnecessarily fragmented and confusing.
Use of the long drawn out face shots and close-ups also seemed pointless and just served to slow the pace of the film down. There were also just too many things in the movie that were not explained either at all or well enough. Examples of such are: where did Brad Pitt's character come from? He just all of the sudden was there with very little if any character background information or purpose. The time element was also blurred. The film's title implied that this all took place over 12 years. You never got the feeling that 12 years had passed. The main characters appearance didn't seem to change much if at all until makeup people sprinkled some Gray dust on Solomon's head at very end. There are other examples. I thought Michael Fassbender's portrayal of a lunatic plantation owner was way over the top as the character would have more likely been committed to an insane asylum than a owner of a working farm.
The score by Hans Zimmer seemed rather strange at times as well. I am a big Hans Zimmer fan but there were moments where I felt the music would have been more appropriate for War of the Worlds than for 12 Years a Slave. I also felt that some of the costumes were a bit over the top and too formal.
In summary, I think the film would have much better if the director would have just gotten out of the way and let the very compelling and tragic story and great actors carry the load.