Review: "Harriet" Only Gets So Far With Conventional Story

Scene from Harriet (2019)

There's no biopic that has as much pressure to live up to as director Kasi Lemmons' Harriet. It's likely that those who have been in a history class anytime over the past 100 years will know the achievements of Harriet Tubman, even vaguely. She is a prime figure in the success of The Underground Railroad, and that's just the start to something more exciting and empowering about her story. There's so much ground to cover to the point that it's impossible to fathom why it took until 2019 for Tubman to receive the biopic treatment. Harriet is a film that has to be something for everybody as a result, being neither too salacious for those discovering her story nor too sentimental and false. Where does one possibly go with this material for a first outing? The answer is somewhere safe in the middle, producing a film that is satisfying but lacks any urgency that will revive Tubman's legacy to a new generation.

There is an aspect of Harriet that captures something engrossing, and it comes down during the sequences of her traveling the path of The Underground Railroad. To watch Tubman walk along the path, through a forest of uncertainty, reflects a danger that comes with freeing slaves to a more tolerant north. What if they're caught? Will they just get lynched or treated harshly by their white slaveholders? So much lies in the balance of them getting through this unknown and the audience understands the uncertainty on a humanity level. Suddenly the weight of Tubman's journey makes sense. There was a danger to what she was doing, and to watch her consult spiritual forces to guide the way only show how much she was tied to her faith that they were walking the path of the righteous, crossing rivers that many slaves couldn't pass given their inability to swim.

That danger is what makes Harriet an interesting experience, but it's not enough to make for a satisfying biopic. At the center is Tubman's performance by Cynthia Erivo. If there's something to love about her, it's the slow shift from cautious viewer to a defensive leader. There are dozens of moments where she pulls out a gun, defending the slaves from an enemy. The snarl she gives comes across as this form of intimidation. There are confidence and joy in watching this woman stand up to evil, and it's built as a moment of empowerment. In 2019, it's something that should feel far more satisfying than it is. While Erivo gives a worthwhile performance that would suit a better movie, the story is conventional and follows a path that takes a more sentimental approach to events, never allowing Tubman to ever feel like she was in danger nor reflecting a moral complexity that would enrich characters.

This is the issue with making a biopic this late into cinema's history. Tubman has lead an interesting life. There are plenty of ways to tell a story involving her that would be exciting and dramatic pieces of cinema. This particular take owes more credit to the safer, less challenging stories like Glory and Amistad, where racism has clear goods and evils and things feel like they work out by the end. It's by no means a rewriting of her life, but it's a film that has to play it safe so that it doesn't sabotage potential biopics in the future when the later chapters of her life get a chance to be told. The film ends with this post-script, and it almost feels like a cheat. It's in part because the text has multiple moments that make the viewer imagine her acts of bravery in more interesting ways. The ending of the film before that was fine, but it only told the story of The Underground Railroad that everyone with a history book already knew. Sure, there was something engaging to watching it, but the post-script almost ruins the film entirely by suggesting an alternate script that could be a much better movie.

By the end, the performance of Tubman is a fascinating one that keeps the audience entertained. Erivo definitely earns her Oscar nomination for a performance that is layered with confidence to overcome the evil in her life. However, there's not much else here that would make for an essential take on the subject. It's the problem with taking this long to make a cinematic adaptation of such a complex figure. It needs to appeal to everyone on the first go, and that can't do more than make the familiar argument that "racism is bad." In an era where 12 Years a Slave shows a more uncomfortable and brutal side of slavery, it's weird to look at this quaint story that doesn't push enough boundaries to be memorable. It's good, but one can hope the next take will have a little more meat on its bones.