A "Guess who's coming to dinner?" for the 21st century.

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2014)

Worthy rather than outstanding.Well - made,well - acted and with little apart from the subject matter to set it above many other well - made and well - acted films of the last decade. Nobody in their right mind would suggest that slavery was anything but evil - that's a given.Perhaps a younger generation who have never heard of Little Rock or Rosa Parks need a reminder that equality and freedom having been painfully gained must never be surrendered,and it may be those people to whom "12 years a slave" has the most resonance in much the same way that "Schindler's List" brought the horrors of the holocaust to those to whom it had been merely an historic event. To sum up,you could say that "12 years a slave" is a triumph of substance over style in much the same way as Fifty years back "Guess who's coming to dinner?",another worthy,well - made and well - acted film was a minor sensation but is now remembered only for its social message and not for its merits per se. Perhaps in 2063 the critics will be saying something similar about "12 years a slave".