REVIEW: 12 Years A Slave

Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

When 12 Years a Slave, the historical drama from director Steve McQueen (Shame), hit the festival circuit, several critics I respect called it a horror film. I understood where they were coming from in their arguments, but the classification still seemed jarring to me. Now that I’ve seen the film, I recognize it’s the most accurate way to describe the atrocities depicted in the fact-based narrative.

What word besides “horror” can express the slow realization that you’ve been drugged, kidnapped and shackled in a subterranean dungeon? Is there a more suitable word to describe the fact that a typical day in your new life includes being beaten and psychologically tortured so severely that you begin to question your own identity?

Or spending every waking moment knowing that everything you loved about life – from minor aspects like nice clothes and good music, to essential elements like your spouse, children and livelihood – has disappeared, never to return? Instead, perpetrators of an unspeakable wickedness have replaced that world with one in which you are nothing more than talking livestock. When the situation is presented in such stark terms, “horror” seems too slight.

But that’s exactly what happened to Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York who was tricked into accepting a bogus job in Washington, D.C. during the pre-Civil War era. Instead of playing the violin for a traveling circus, he is abducted and sold into slavery under the name Platt.

Over the span of a dozen years, Northup encounters a number of people involved in the slave trade. Some are vile (those played by Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson and especially Michael Fassbender) and some are comparatively evenhanded (the plantation owner played by Benedict Cumberbatch), though it’s only in this perverse world that a man who owns human beings can be even remotely considered “reasonable.” Finally, in his 12th year of bondage, Northup has a chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist named Bass (Brad Pitt) that offers him a glimmer of hope.

As you might presume from the subject matter, 12 Years a Slave is profound, emotionally devastating and staggeringly brutal in its realistic depiction of America’s most vicious sin. McQueen’s film doesn’t tiptoe around the barbarism that slaves experienced on a routine basis, although the backdrop for these appalling acts is contradictorily beautiful thanks to Sean Bobbitt’s stunning cinematography.

Crushing as the material is, viewers shouldn’t approach the film as a homework assignment. John Ridley’s outstanding screenplay (based on Northup’s autobiography of the same name) has a traditionally episodic structure that mainstream audiences should find familiar rather than off-putting. While there are flashes of graphic violence, they occur in rare bursts; the emotional violence, however, is continuous.

Plus, the performances are nothing short of extraordinary. Ejiofor has been turning in consistently strong work for over a decade (I first took notice when he played Keira Knightley’s husband in Love Actually), but his transcendent performance as Northup should make him the Best Actor frontrunner and rocket him onto Hollywood’s A-list. (The key word here is “should.”)

He essentially plays two characters in the film: Northup, the man’s true identity, and Platt, his interpretation of the man his captors want him to be. It’s a complex role, which Ejiofor pulls off thanks to his gravitas and large, expressive eyes. They’re full of joy, purpose and optimism at the beginning of the story. But over the course of two hours, the light in them gradually dies out, with despair and resignation taking its place. It’s a heartbreakingly brilliant performance.

Fassbender is similarly exceptional as Edwin Epps, Northup’s most monstrous owner. The actor understands that evil people hardly ever believe they’re evil (the planet would be a much simpler place if that were true), so he instills in Epps an undying conviction in his twisted worldview. When Pitt’s character warns him about the karmic retribution that’s coming for treating human beings like property, Fassbender’s facial expression indicates Bass is telling him about a fairytale land of giants and beanstalks.

The film’s other jaw-dropping performance belongs to newcomer Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey, a slave who becomes the focal point of Epps’ desire and wrath. Her countenance displays the sad knowledge that she has done nothing to warrant her detestable master’s attention, along with the weary realization that her situation will not change for the rest of her life, however long or short that might be. Factor in the childish retributions aimed at her from Epps’ jealous wife (the stellar Paulson), and Patsey is beset from all sides. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear Nyong’o’s name announced in the Best Supporting Actress category in a few months.

Other actors like Pitt, Giamatti, Dano and Cumberbatch don’t have a lot of screen time (they basically make extended cameo appearances), but their work is memorable enough that there’s no danger you’ll forget them by the end credits. Everyone has a vital part to play in the film, and the actors understand the enormous importance of the material.

While it’s not a conventionally entertaining viewing experience, 12 Years a Slave is absolutely worth watching. It’s one of the best films about slavery ever made, mostly because British director McQueen can approach it from an outsider’s viewpoint. He hasn’t been tainted by the typical rhetoric that revolves around this still-controversial tragedy in America’s history. He has a unique perspective, one that adds to the conversation in an essential way.

12 Years a Slave is rated R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality.

Grade: A