Alice played by (Keke Palmer) is inspired by the very real-life history of Black Americans who remained enslaved even after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Alice even though still enslaved in 1963, is taught how to read by her cruel owner so that she can read to him on occasion. However, through the learning by reading books, she discovers her urge for freedom and even weds her now-husband without her owner’s consent.

Her husband Joseph played by (Gaius Charles) confides in his father about his plans to run away from the plantation with his wife Alice, however before the couple can even attempt to execute their plan, their owner Paul Bennet played (Jonny Lee Miller) catches onto them and has Joseph killed.

Having lost the love of her life Alice defies her owner by fighting back and screaming incoherently. It was at this stage of the film that for some unknown reason; I fell into a trance when seeing Alice chained up with a face gag, my emotions took over and I started shedding tears uncontrollably at this moment.

From that moment on I felt as if I were right there in the movie side by side with Alice. Keke Palmer deserves to be praised for her breathtaking acting throughout the film, she never once broke character. She resembled both the 1890s and the 1960s themes so will.

The shocking reveal to the audience that Alice had been enslaved years, decades after the Emancipation Proclamation was so painful to see. And to think that even during the 21st Century, there are still Black Americans to this day being enslaved somewhere out there in the United States of America.

I love how the film went about using the Black Panthers and past leaders of Black Americans such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Angela Y. Davis to free Alice’s mind, however, some of the things said in the film are still relevant till this day.

It’s without a doubt that the white population feared the black man rising to power, the saddest thing I find about this is that the black population after losing these prominent figures lost their will to fight and instead started fighting one another.

Alice comes to realize that freedom is something she had always had and never needed anyone to tell her that she had. The past is there to teach us where we come from and show us the mistakes we made on our way however it’s so hard for humans to learn from history, it is due to ignorance or fear?

Paul Bennet even at the end after getting caught reveals that he never once told any of his slaves to run away yet because of their own need for self-preservation and the fear of the unknown decided on their own to stay. This is true depending on the situation. If slavery is all you know why would you want to run away? What if you meet crueler people out there than in here, what if there is nothing out there?

This was the true power of slavery, it broke not only their hearts but minds as well. And as science has proven Trauma can be inherited, meaning this fear and destruction of the white man will certainly exist in the Black-American population for centuries to come.

The film flew by so quickly, I had wanted to see more of Keke Palmer though the ending had me perplexed. I’m not sure if this was done for pleasing the audience or what but Joseph appears in the end, alive and well still wearing the same clothes as the day he got caught, AWKWARD…

This discredits all of Alice’s sacrifice, anger, and rage towards Paul Bennet for killing Joseph which in turn just makes everything seem like an act. The ending destroyed what I believe was a spectacular performance from Keke Palmer.

Frank played by (Common) played his role splendidly, imagine meeting a girl talking about being a slave in 1963. It’s been nearly seventy years later and you’d never seen anyone in such a situation, this would have you thinking you picked up a crazy person right?

Though some of the cruel scenes weren’t visually shown, the movie did its best to represent the situations enslaved people went through, even though it was hard to see at some parts, seeing Alice stare in amazement at some of the things she found unbelievable was worth every minute of the film.

To think that every human is born free yet some cruel-minded people had the idea of enslaving innocent people is devastating to think about. These same cruel people then want to be honored and praised. Almost makes me want to give up on humanity as a whole.

Honestly a daring movie but worth its message of awareness to those still enslaved to this day.

Thanks for reading…