Could Be A Hell of a Lot Worse

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2015)

There is not much I can really say about this movie. This is one of very few films that leaves me feeling neutral. The acting is very impressive throughout. However, even great acting can't save a movie from a faulty plot. The movie has a very narrow range of intensity. In order to excite, a movie needs to go from 0 to 100 and then back to 0 quickly, and repeatedly. This movie starts out at a good 30 and eventually gets to about 60. C'mon guys, its a slave movie; if you think whipping is going to feel intense in that context, you are mistaken. Overall, the whole film is predictable, even the resolution. All that said, I can move beyond that and get through it without feeling as if the time was truly wasted. The only intense criticism I have stems from a brief sex scene at the beginning. After reading up on the basis of this movie, I found that Northup's autobiography no where states that he violated his marriage by having sex with another slave. This modification, supposedly warranted by "artistic license", just feels like a cheap and distasteful stab at Northup's legacy, though probably not intentionally. Again, some really great acting, but nothing too special about the movie as a whole.