Harriet (2019)

Tubman as an action hero? It actually works. She did run back and forth through the woods, freeing herself and dozens more from slavery before the Civil War. Cynthia Erivo is terrific in the title role and Joe Alwyn scary as Gideon Brodess, the son of her owners and her main antagonist. Leslie Odom Jr. gets second billing, though he isn't on screen that much as Mr. Still, and Janelle Monáe's wardrobe is wonderful as Marie Buchanon, a free-born African-American owner of a Philadelphia boarding house, her character invented expressly for this movie.

Director/co-writer Kasi Lemmons's script was co-written by Gregory Allen Howard. The beautiful cinematography is thanks to John Toll, whose lighting of the brown faces (not always done right), is picture perfect, day and night.

Terence Blanchard's original score can be streamed on Apple Music, Spotify, and more. Erivo is a Tony-winning actress and singer (for The Color Purple, the same year Odom won for Hamilton) and sings from time to time during the movie. Sadly, we don't get to hear any songs from Odom or Monae, but Vondie Curtis-Hall sings a little as Reverend Green.

Erivo was last blogged for Widows (I enjoyed seeing her sprinting in that movie, too, all the better without Harriet's long skirts), Alwyn for Mary Queen of Scots, Odom for Murder on the Orient Express, Monae for Welcome to Marwen, Toll for The Adjustment Bureau, and Blanchard for BlacKkKlansman. This is Lemmons' babetteflix debut, after nominations and wins for Eve's Bayou (1997) and Talk to Me (2007).

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 73%, are way behind its audiences at 97. We found it moving, engrossing, and beautiful.