Harriet has its downsides, but the story is thought-provoking.

By Rebekah Karp, Staff Writer/Artist

The newest film by Kasi Lemmons has been on my watchlist since the first trailer came out, and needless to say I was very excited for this film rendition of a such a powerful figure in history. From the first trailer, though, I had some questions. 

The film sells itself much like an action picture though and that was a bit interesting. Throughout the film there was always this heavy and dramatic music backing each scene, and every bit of dialogue was written as a dramatic speech. That was a bit off-putting at first and seemed a bit ingenuine and unbelievable. Overall, however, the story is very powerful in itself so it evened out the sense of over-dramatics. 

Other than some interesting technical moves on the lighting seeming to be almost sit-com-like, the story itself and the feeling I had after seeing the film were great. It was an incredible story told in a very dramatic, powerful way to show the audience member how important this story is. 

The cast was quite incredible as well, including a very emotion provoking performance by Cynthia Enviro (Harriet), fresh off the stage Leslie Odom Jr, and many others who I would not be surprised if they received an award later this year. This film was a little muddy on the technical sides of filmmaking and almost too dramatic. Nevertheless, the story was riveting and left the audience with a very meaningful piece of art to think about.