Harriet (2019) * *

Directed by:  Kasi Lemmons

Starring:  Cynthia Erivo, Joe Alwyn, Leslie Odom, Jr., Janelle Monae, Jennifer Nettles, Zackary Momoh

Harriet is the first movie made about Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave who risked her own freedom to return to the South and aid other slaves in escaping to the north.    It was dangerous enough for her to travel 100 miles from Maryland to Pennsylvania on foot with her owner on her trail, but Tubman would reportedly rescue nearly 150 slaves from bondage in the years leading up to the Civil War.    She was a hero, and her heroism is such there was talk of her replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 dollar bill.   So why is Harriet such a disappointment?    Why is such an inherently powerful story made inert?    The early scenes of Harriet (born Minty Ross) enduring starvation, the weather, and the ever-present threat of discovery to make it to Philadelphia are riveting, and the rest of the movie doesn't match that power. 

Harriet begins in 1849 in a Maryland plantation.   Minty, later Harriet (Erivo) marries a free man (Momoh) in the hopes of earning her own freedom and ensuring her future children are legally born free.    Her master puts the kibosh on that plan, and after learning she will be sold and separated from her family, Minty goes on the run at night and miraculously eludes capture.    Once Minty reaches Philadelphia, she changes her name to Harriet Tubman and works with an organization which assists escaped slaves in assimilating to their new surroundings.    Despite being free, Harriet can't rest easy knowing her family is still enslaved, and proceeds against the objections of organization leader William Still (Odom) to travel back down to Maryland to help her family escape.  

Even after leading her family to freedom, Harriet has visions from God telling her to go back and help more slaves escape, and she does just that.    She is dubbed "Moses" and the evil Gideon (Alwyn), son of her former master makes it his life's mission to capture and kill "Moses", not knowing that Moses is indeed his former slave Minty.   We know eventually there will be a showdown between Harriet and Gideon.   What we don't expect is how unsatisfying it is.   Harriet holds Gideon at gunpoint and belts out a speech about how evil slavery is and how the Southern way of life will soon go by the wayside.   With slave hunters bearing down on her, she is busy lecturing Gideon about things the audience has already surmised. 

Erivo gives us a determined, resourceful Harriet.   Odom is saddled with the frustrating character whose job is to tell Harriet she can't or shouldn't do something just so Harriet can basically say "hold my beer" and go and do the very thing she was told she can't do.   Alwyn is sufficiently hateful as Gideon, with his eyes almost permanently stuck in the narrowed position.  Harriet feels much like a superficial, made-for-television version of the Harriet Tubman story.   We see the events unfold without ever being absorbed in them.   There is a great movie to be made about Harriet Tubman, and Harriet isn't it.