More than 150 years since the end of the Civil War, slavery remains the scar that just won’t heal in the United States. Recognizing that, Antoine Fuqua’s “Emancipation” is a bracing and still-neces…
” is a bracing and still-necessary attempt to face this painful legacy head-on, inspired by perhaps the single most powerful image we have of a once-enslaved person: the 1863 portrait of “Whipped Peter,” whose lacerated back served as shocking proof of unconscionable mistreatment by his white “masters.
Smith plays Peter as a man of faith, penitent to his god, but defiant of men. He speaks French with his family and heavily accented English to all others. Most of the time, Peter keeps silent, which puts the burden on Smith to convey what this man wants: freedom for his family, respect for himself, justice for his tormentors — despicable men like Fassel , who sees his job of tracking runaways like some kind of sport.
From “Training Day” to “The Magnificent Seven,” Fuqua has given great actors larger-than-life characters to sink their teeth into, but this project calls for a different strategy. Instead of going big, Smith and Foster approach their roles with a less-is-more attitude. As a result, both Peter — who overhears news of the Emancipation Proclamation and sets out for Baton Rouge, where the Union Army has taken the port — and hot-on-the-trail Fassel feel realistic, but oddly lacking in dimension.
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