'Harriet'

It was only a matter of time before Tony winner Cynthia Erivo found the starring movie role she deserved: Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who became helped lead many other slaves to freedom, in the riveting biographical drama “Harriet.”

Director Kasi Lemmons (“Talk to Me,” “Eve’s Bayou”) introduces us to Tubman as Minty, a slave on a Maryland plantation in 1849. Her husband, a free black man named John Tubman (Zachary Momoh), tries to assert his and Minty’s legal rights to the plantation owner, Edward Brodess (Michael Marunde), but he won’t let Minty go. When Edward dies, leaving the plantation to his wife, Eliza (country singer Jennifer Nettles), and their son, Gideon (Joe Alwyn), who has lusted after Minty since childhood.

Fearful of what Gideon might do with his father gone, Minty makes a harrowing escape north, finding helpful people along the way. She eventually walks across the Mason-Dixon line into Pennsylvania, and lands in Philadelphia at the offices of William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.), an abolitionist and author. Still interviews Minty about her ordeal, takes down the horrific details, and suggests she give herself a new name — her freedom name. She chooses Harriet.

Still introduces Harriet to Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monaé), a fiercely independent black woman who owns a boarding house. Harriet gets Still’s help to go back and rescue some of her family, garnering a reputation as a fearless emancipator. Still hooks Harriet up with the Underground Railroad, and soon becomes one of the group’s most successful “conductors.” It’s a tribute, or sorts, to Harriet’s skills and bravery that Gideon and his fellow slaveholders think the mysterious “Moses” must be a white male Northerner, not a petite black woman like her.

Lemmons, rewriting a script by Gregory Alan Howard (“Remember the Titans”), creates a refreshingly old-fashioned biopic. Lemmons doesn’t shy away from the horrors of America’s slave trade and the racist laws that propped it up, but she’s willing to shape the details of history a bit for dramatic effect.

Tubman is a complex character, driven by love of family as much as lofty ideals, and subject to spells and occasional visions of the future — the result, we’re told, of a brutal skull fracture when she was young. Erivo, acting in her third movie (she had supporting roles in “Bad Times at the El Royale” and “Widows,” channels those contradictory threads of Tubman’s life into a strong-willed yet sensitive woman who fights because that’s the only way to survive.

Because of Erivo’s performance, and strong support from Odom and Monaé, “Harriet” becomes a forceful portrait of an American hero. Maybe it will be enough to finally get Tubman on the damn 20-dollar bill.

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“Harriet”

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, Nov. 1, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for thematic content throughout, violent material and language including racial epithets. Running time: 125 minutes.