‘Harriet’ Review: Harriet Tubman Gets A Superhero Origin Story In Formulaic But Compelling Biopic

FORBES MAGAZINE
By Scott Mendelson

Poster for new biopic movie, "Harriet"

Opening in wide release on Thursday night courtesy of Focus Features, Harriet almost acts as a dare to those who have (correctly) spent the last decade or two wondering why Hollywood had yet to make a biopic featuring Harriet Tubman. And now, at last, we’ve got a Harriet Tubman movie, directed by the much-respected Kasi Lemmons and co-written by Lemons and Gregory Allen Howard. And, sure enough, in this Netflix/VOD world, the movie we all claimed to want will be lucky to open with $10 million this weekend. That would be unfortunate since the movie is actually pretty good. It’s a Harriet Tubman biopic, plain and simple, and as such does exactly what it promises. [More]