Difficult to watch but worth the effort

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 2014)

12 Years A Slave tells the story of a free black man who was sold into slavery and remained a slave for 12 years before a chance encounter freed him. I love going to the cinema and in general it's a happy experience but this is easily the most depressing trip to the cinema I've ever had. 12YAS, which is in many ways even more depressing than Schindler's List, is a relentlessly unflinching and harrowing look at slavery which is crafted with great skill and brilliantly acted. Perhaps it is Oscar bait, but it genuinely deserved the awards attention it got. It's not a masterpiece or an all time classic though. It's slow and long, and there are various times when nothing is really happening and those scenes feel pointless as a result. Overall, it is a worthy film on a very depressing but important and rarely explored in cinema topic that gets most stuff right. Steve McQueen used to be an artist and it shows as his direction is excellent with a lot of stunning cinematography and effective long takes.
The acting is great, with all of the actors delivering loads of emotional power with only facial expressions. Although Chiwetel Ejofor and Michael Fassbender are great, Lupita Nyong'o steals the show and very deservedly won the best supporting actress Oscar. The script doesn't veer into pointless sentimentality and stays true to the source material. Although dull at times, 12YAS remains disturbing and brutally honest throughout. I wouldn't be able to face a second viewing, but I'm very glad I got the chance to see it. The ending is genuinely tear jerking and while it may have several viewers in tears, its tear jerking moments feels genuine and truthful. In many ways Gravity and Her were better movies and this may not be seen as a great classic in future but unlike other Oscar nominated films (Crash, Zero Dark Thirty I'm looking at you) this takes an important subject and actually turns it into excellent filmmaking instead of just delivering a message in a bland and manipulative way. Just don't expect any rays of sunshine. At all.
9/10