Jim Dooley’s review published on Letterboxd:
Gathering my thoughts about 12 YEARS A SLAVE has not been easy. My emotions have been in conflict with the structure of the film. From an emotional aspect, it is an incredibly powerful film that left me with the feeling that I’d tasted the horrific fruit of what it meant to be a slave. From a structural aspect, it had some problems that impacted my involvement with the story.
The problems:
* Looming above them all is the epistolary nature of the story. It most frequently plays out like diary entries. Many sequences are very short. The longer ones seldom connect into a narrative structure. Instead, it is mostly comprised of “first this happened and then that happened” scenes. There was essentially one perspective. Consequently, despite what was happening on the screen, I could often sense a distance between myself and the characters.
* At least two major supporting characters weren’t well developed. In fact, they were almost caricatures. The main one was Sarah Paulson as Mistress Epps, striking me as only a few steps removed from Cruella de Vil. The other was Brad Pitt as Bass, a Saint in Amish clothing. Considering the strength of other roles, these really stood out.
* There were also intriguing characters that I would like to have known more about. The two who immediately come to mind are Alfie Woodard as Mistress Shaw and Benedict Cumberbatch as Ford. I certainly didn’t need to know everything about them, but they were so different from other characters that it would have been good to have a bit more insight.
Being that they were emotionally connected, the positives outweighed the negatives:
* There were so many excellent portrayals in the movie. Two who stood out above them all were Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup and Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey. They consistently brought so many different levels of understanding with their performances … sometimes just a glance could be devastating.
* Director Steve McQueen instilled a sense of poetry to the rhythm of the film. Sometimes, beauty was revealed in the agony. Often, a bucolic opening would flash into a Poe-like undercurrent. I was usually uncertain of where I would be taken next.
* Along with that poetic sense was also poetic imagery, thanks to Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt. A striking sunset through the boughs of trees would bring a brief respite … which could be followed by the realization that hours of agony had passed.
* Composer Hans Zimmer reveals a subtle score that enhances without being bombastic.
* I anticipated how the movie would end, but the reality was far more powerful than I had imagined.
For years, I’ve read many books and seen many movies that involved people being shanghaied or “press-ganged” into a life of servitude for years. 12 YEARS A SLAVE had some of those same elements. But, those other stories focused on the business side of the acts and the constant striving for freedom. This one uncovered more of the spark of humanity that refused to be extinguished among the hatred.
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