THE GREAT DEBATERS
The Great Debaters is based on a true story of a black high school debate team, which eventually goes on to challenge the Harvard debate team. At various points of the film I experienced déjà vu because huge chunks of the movie seemed to be borrowed from other black civil rights movies (e.g. Mississippi Burning). Denzel Washington makes one of his trademark, self-righteous speeches. The plot lacked soul and is filled with psedointellectual garbage. Any adversity the characters had to overcome was unrealistic or purely gratuitous. All the characters are multi-dimensional, which saves the movie from being a complete disaster. Forrest Whitaker, and Denzel Washington gave stellar performances. No one else really stood out. Jurnee Smollett has a dreadfully irritating southern accent, reminiscent of Jasmine Guy on the television program A Different World. In short, The Great Debaters is on par with a solid made-for-TV movie, which is why I would wait until it comes out on TNT before watching it.
Final Verdict: 67 out of a possible 100
