To cut to the chase, this was a well-produced, well-acted yet not well- written movie about a free African American who gets kidnapped into slavery. Unlike Amistad or other human sufferage films like The Pianist or Schindler's List, those films drew more emotion from me such as a misty eye, tears or the feeling of needing to vomit during the slave ship scene in Amistad. Yet this movie failed to connect me to the character or the story with the same depth. Perhaps it was the lack of a true goal and story/character arc. Sure ESCAPE was his goal but there wasn't a big plan so there was a lot of biding one's time and taking it day by day. And then Brad Pitt shows up which sort of takes you out of the story because there is Pitt with a beard. He was good but his inclusion and his 'star power' was jarring. There were plenty of unpleasant scenes that were powerfully brutal that made you feel various people's agony yet it didn't draw the out emotions as if they had better intertwined them in a more compelling story.