Movie Review: 12 Years a Slave

Rating: ****

Another adult film released amidst the usual holiday popcorn flicks worth seeing. I'm just not a fan of the mega popcorn flicks unless they're just so great like Avatar you can't miss it. So with that thought I passed on Hunger Games and went for 12 Years a Slave. This film is like the 20th century version of Roots. It does nothing to glamorize slavery and takes a realistic perspective on the brutal reality of being a "free" man who loses his freedom when he's kidnapped and taken south to New Orleans and forced into slavery. As an educated man, he is self-aware and knows the difference between enslaved and being free. The film realistically walks the viewer through the emotional and physical breakdown of the man forced into degradation.

The film is not uplifting. It's brutal and sad. Even at the end, you're not feeling inspired to do much more than hope slavery is ended forever everywhere in the world. The movie addresses the human condition and how being turned into nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold is completely dehumanizing, degrading and demoralizing. It's awful and painful to watch, but it's a solid movie. I expect it will be up for awards, too. The acting was superb on all counts.