Harriet: Cynthia Erivo is the Actress of the Moment
After seeing 2018’s Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows, being completely enamored by Cynthia Erivo’s supporting performances, my only feelings towards her were that she was going to go far in her film career and potentially snag Oscar-nominations for her brilliant performances. It only took her one more year to accomplish that feat — leading Harriet and getting an Academy Award nomination for her brilliant performance as Harriet Tubman, who escapes slavery and becomes an abolitionnist. The film is quite cookie-cutter, like many films in 2019 that include terrific performances and a shallow story (Judy, Bombshell, Little Women), but it’s Erivo that keeps us watching.
My praise for Cynthia Erivo can’t go farther than this. She truly is the actress of the moment — magnifiying every inch of the screen with true, raw emotional power unlike any actress can try to do these days. Sure, the female performances have been quite excellent, but Erivo doesn’t emote crying and/or “raw” emotions like Scarlett Johansson did in Marriage Story. With Erivo, emotions happen naturally and aren’t forcefully responsive. Every scene she’s in (which is basically the entire film), your eyes are glued at to what exactly she will do and what she will say. She’s the only reason the movie is watchable. Sure, the supporting performances of Leslie Odom Jr., Omar Dorsey, Joe Alwyn, Janelle Monáe, Vondie Curtis-Hall and Tory Kittles are all really solid — especially Alwyn who perfectly knows how to play a despicable, racist, white slave owner. Everytime he and Erivo clash together — it’s fantastically theatrical, as if we’re watching a play in front of our eyes. But it’s Erivo that gets the biggest stand-out and is wholly deserving of an Oscar nomination.
As for the film itself, it’s a mixed bag. Erivo truly saves the film, and the supporting performances also elevate its shoddy script. The structure is as formulaic as most biopics on slavery, and never really rises past it. It’s a very ordinary bio-pic, with a chronological structure and a “text” at the end that concludes the movie. Yes, the cinematography in the present sequences are fantastic, but the “flashback” scenes and/or Harriet’s “visions” as she feels a call from God is presented in a terribly saturated negative/white that takes away from the film’s visual artistry. These are scenes that I would’ve absolutely cut from the movie, as we don’t need to see what Harriet is feeling. Her dialogue, facial expressions and movements convey everything we need to know about her connection with God. We don’t need to see anything else. I wasn’t too enthralled by the film’s structure and pace, it’s truly the performances that make Harriet worth watching and worth seeking out. All you need to know is that Cynthia Erivo is the actress of the moment — the one whose career shows the most promise, more than Florence Pugh and Julia Fox, because she magnifies the screen unlike any “breakthrough” actress has done in recent memory. Her theatrical background made sure she was more-than prepared to tackle Hollywood and rise as one of the best actresses we have today. I cannot wait to see what she does next (and, yes, I can’t wait to see her in Chaos Walking if that movie ever comes out) and I will be there.
✯✯✯
