12 Years a Slave

Based on the Solomon Northup autobiography, 12 Years a Slave chronicles the life of a free black New York man in the 1840's after he is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the deep south. It's a heavy-handed rendering, and at times is even a bit gratuitous in its violence and grittiness, but Steve McQueen wanted to paint a realistic picture, and he certainly did that.

Steve McQueen is no stranger to controversy, as his 2011 Indy breakout, Shame attests. He is one of Michael Fassbender's favorite directors, having worked together three times so far, and Michael Fassbender is one of the hottest names in Hollywood right now. Despite the lackluster reviews of The Counselor (which I still haven't seen yet, even though it's a collaboration of some of my favorites), he has the new X-Men coming next year, is playing MacBeth, and has been working with Terrence Malik in a promising untitled film that will come out next year. If that weren't enough, he's signed on for Prometheus 2, and piques my curiosity as the leading candidate for 2015's Assassin's Creed, a hugely successful video game franchise. His range of role selection is commendable, he's taking on all genres, working with a multitude of strong directors, and is climbing his way up the ladder, showing that the current trio of Germanic actors (Fassbender, Daniel Bruhl, Christoph Waltz) can hang with the Americans just fine. Fassbender channels controlled racist rage and 1840's southern values frighteningly. It must have been a very difficult role to play, but he will likely receive a supporting actor nomination for his work.

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup in a bold and unflinching performance filled with such a range of emotion that it's almost impossible not to fall into the time. Ejiofor is a recognizable face from his vast body of work, and he hides his British accent well (as most Brit actors are able to). He challenges the viewer to believe in the injustice and plight that his character is enduring, and I can't imagine another actor pulling off the role quite so viscerally. He will certainly get a Best Actor nomination, but the film's "tough pill to swallow" will probably lose some of the academy votes.

Where the film falters is in the pacing and the dialogue. We are shuttled back and forth in time with no real guidance, and the twelve years goes by without any real sense of seasonal change. What did the slaves do during the harsh winter months? When the fields were tended, what happened? We don't develop any sort of relationship with the slaves, and maybe that's how it was; impersonal because they were treated as property and came and went from season to season. We reach the end of the film and it seems like it's been one long year. There's no aging and no real evidence of the physical toll that his time took on him. The reunion with his family should have been orchestrated more intentionally. It was an opportunity to give the film its finest moment, but it was wasted, dragged down by the heaviness and self-loathing regret shown by Solomon.

Don't get me wrong, there are moments of fantastic film making, and even more fantastic acting. It just had too many moments that could have been portrayed stronger. Chiwetel and Fassbender are terrific. 7/10.