Directed By Antoine Fuqua

Starring – Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa

The Plot – A runaway slave (Smith) forges through the swamps of Louisiana on a tortuous journey to escape plantation owners that nearly killed him.

Rated R for strong racial violence, disturbing images and adult language

Emancipation — Official Trailer | Apple TV+ – YouTube

POSITIVES

While other slavery films pack a pungently profound punch to go with their stories of perseverance and inspiration, very few match Fuqua’s thoroughly immersive direction, conjuring a transportive essence in visual allure that breeds a thickness to the atmospheric dread and inescapable macabre that sadly millions fell victim to. Because of such, Antoine pulls no punches, articulating a visceral ferocity to the setting and its characters that unapologetically establishes slavery as the endless nightmare that it truly was, and in turn ratcheting the intensity of the engagement and commanding captivity of its presentation in ways that are impressive for a streaming company like Apple, still in the infancy of its cinematic releases. Most of this quality certainly stems in the intricacies of the bold sound designs, audibly illustrating an immersive consciousness to the consistency of the exterior setting that casts fear and mystery inside of the pocketed perils of silence, with Marcelo Zarvos’ thunderously tragic music stylings in tow, but so much considerable praise equally lends itself to the hypnotic cinematography from Robert Richardson, who not only cements meaning and merit to colorful and colorless canvases, but also isn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty, with a versatility in movements and compositions that remain as physically persistent as that of Smith alluding his racist captors. Speaking of Smith, only months after the night that changed his career for better and worse, he follows up his triumphant Oscar win with a turn as Peter that is one of the more physically grueling of his entire career. Aside from his motivation to lose twenty-five pounds for the role and don a Haitian accent, Smith trudges through swampy waters, muddy trenches, and claustrophobic tree hideouts to echo the vulnerability and determination of the plantation’s most wanted man, all the while imbedding within him a depth for emotional dexterity with very few words to convey at his disposal, in turn outlining the range and resiliency of one of the single greatest dramatic actors of our time.

NEGATIVES

What ultimately keeps “Emancipation” from being a serious awards contender, as well as one of the quintessential slavery stories in a field of heavy-hitting heavyweights is periodic blunders in execution from a screenplay that relies far too heavily on the visuals to tell the story. The biggest hinderance of this aspect is certainly the lack of subtlety or nuance in the movie’s dialogue, leading to a chorus of groans among the film’s many interactions that define the direction of the narrative long before anything meaningful about it has taken shape. The single worst aspect of this comes from Smith’s own religious following as Peter, who uses every opportunity of tragedy or vulnerability to spill these cinematic one-liners of inspiration that feel like they were lifted directly from a series of Hallmark cards. Beyond this, the characterization is especially thin outside of Smith’s Peter, but felt disappointingly the loudest with slave master Jim Fassel, played by one of my favorite actors going today, Ben Foster. To be fair, Foster is simply not to blame here, as he makes the most of the limited material given to properly flesh out his sparsity in characterization, but it’s essentially the enveloping of every slave master from every slavery movie ever stitched together, wasting away the necessity of casting a remarkable method actor to the ensemble, but never in ways that illustrates the worth of his capabilities. Finally, while the intensity of the action sequences are directed remarkably from Fuqua, it’s the script surrounding them that leads to several moments of meandered pacing inside of this very disjointed screenplay. Considering Peter’s story is one of historical accuracy, the scope of this project disappointingly wastes away the opportunity to show his impact not only for the pride of slaves, but also for the changing complexion of America, instead weaving us through underwritten arcs and bullet point aspects that feel like the sum of a thousand scattered pieces, instead of one cohesive whole. This of course leads to several slow spots, particularly during the second and third acts, which grind with a heft on audience patience, but beyond that saturate the sentimentality of Peter’s stirring story, and ultimately what it meant as the face of the revolution. Because this film barely pulls away from Peter to convey emphasis to the bigger worldwide picture, there’s a complete lack of conscience to the world persisting away from this chase that the script so vitally required towards telling the impact of its monumental stakes, in turn leaving many of Peter’s biggest aspects left unfulfilled in a film that surrounds him.

OVERALL
Apple TV’s latest scintillating drama “Emancipation” does elicit with it the kind of big screen production values and mesmerizing direction from its beneficial 120-million-dollar budget, but can’t make up for underwritten characters, weak dialogue, and a disjointed screenplay plagued by sagging slow spots. Though Smith continues his momentum with another wholeheartedly committed turn, the film surrounding him nearly contradicts his every move, leading to more frustrating questions than satisfying answers about the man who became the photographic representation of America’s inhumane shame.

My Grade: 5/10 or D+