TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE

When Solomon Northup is captured and sold into southern slavery he is a well-spoken educated musician. Over the course of the film the audience then gets to see how the horrific experience of plantation slavery slowly breaks this man. Nothing is spared in this account which is based on Solomon’s own memoirs. Director Steve McQueen manages to capture not just the barbarous brutality (of which there is plenty) but the tedium and slow, creeping despair of a slave’s life. In accomplishing this McQueen is gifted with a strong cast but three actors in particular stand out. The first, of course, is Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon who is on screen for practically all of the film’s running time. Ejifor is able to convey the pain and suffering of his character either by heart rendering screams of anguish or a simple blank-eyed look full of despair. Also of great note is Lupita Nyong’o as Patsy a female slave in the horrifying position of being the object of her master’s lust. The third most noteworthy performance in the film is Michael Fassbinder as Edwin Epp, the epitome of cruelty itself. Fassbender somehow manages to be terrifyingly malevolent and yet pathetic at the same time. All of the characters in the film, even Epp, feel like real three-dimensional people rather than caricatures of the time period. Along with the strong characters and great performances McQueen deliver a beautifully directed film that uses wide open spaces and yet, somehow, feels so very intimate with Solomon and his story. One of the film’s best scenes involves one of Solomon’s punishments, with a long shot that feels agonising to watch. This is easily a contender for the best film of 2014 and we’re only in the first few weeks of January FINAL VERDICT 10/10 this not an easy film to watch, but given the subject matter, that’s the way it should be.