Ok I know most people in the Northern Hemisphere have seen it already and it's been featured heaps in most major film critic sites so nobody really needs my review. But anyway just a few words.
Saw this last week (15th Jan) at Dendy's special preview screening at Circular Quay (sorry for being so terribly late, have been busy, and lazy as always) and it was fantastic.
To be quite honest with you the directing was not really of my favourite style, but since it was kind of a biopic I think it did a pretty good job, as in dramatising and tailoring the story. The plot was clearly not of the creative and original type, per se, as it was based on the self-bio of the protagonist so there wasn't much room for making up a out-of-the-world intriguing plot. So yeah, if you find drama boring you can be well assured better off to look for another film that fills the time slot when you hit the cinema. However if you don't specifically hate this type of film I do strongly recommend this to you. It really does worth it.
The actors' performances were of course wonderful, there's nothing too much to say about it except that. Though I don't really think it was the kind of film can really showcases the actors, as it surely forces most focus on the story itself (and my bad again, since I saw it more than a week ago it's getting pretty faint in my head, apologies, I will try to update asap next time)
It's not a film that I would go mad about, but it was indeed a very fine piece that deserves recognition (and it did, which I'm glad about).
As for the theme, racism that is, I'm not quite sure how well it can do in tackling modern days racist issues but it's always nice to have productions that can somehow put in some positive thinkings to this messed-up problem.
12 Years A Slave will be in cinema from 30th Jan 2014 in Australia. (Though it seems like some cinemas have advanced screenings this couple of days)