“I promise you: I am deeply devoted and committed to putting light and love and joy into the world. And if you hang on, I promise we’ll be able to be friends again,” Will Smith once said with a sullen voice and jittery hands in his apology video. And on the 9th of December, he got a chance to live up to his promise with his performance in Emancipation. The movie had its naysayers and hopeful viewers who were tightly holding onto the three decades of evergreen movies Smith has brought to the cinema.

The fact that this was Will Smith’s big project after the Oscar slap gate raised many questions. Was a bone-chilling account of a slave’s journey to freedom the right choice for his comeback? Would people resonate with it in favor of multi universal high budget super films? But most importantly, would people give Will Smith the benefit of the doubt for the strides that he takes to compleely dissociate himself from the entitled celebrity who slapped Chris Rock on the Oscar stage? The questions have caused a sleepless mania for many, especially Smith himself.

Why Emancipation was the one for Will Smith?

Emancipation starts with Will Smith in the role of Peter, washing his wife’s feet. The act, a sign of respect and care, and the eyes express the bounties of love he has for her. He has fully lived the character of Peter down to the last morsel. Notably, Emancipation does not beat around the bush before jumping into the dark, horrifying hole of slavery that it roped the audience with. With a budget of 120 million dollars, the movie is not devoid of opulence much like the actor that it was tasked to rebirth.

Smith’s burning black eyes that scream his misery, hollowed cheeks, and the black and gray color palette are incorporated in the movie as if to mirror the darkness in the hearts of the Confederate Army, taking you to a world far too dark than the present.

The beautiful story of Gordon brilliantly directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by William N.Collage, unfortunately, fell prey to a question bigger than the one it had set out to raise.

Whether Will Smith still has the magic and the ability to influence fans to storm into theaters overshadowed whether we have built a system devoid of slavery and dependent on respect. But thanks to Will Smith’s determination as both Peter the slave who wanted freedom from the shackles of the army. And the actor who wants freedom from his embarrassing Oscar slap gate moment, as ironic as it may sound, Emancipation passed with flying colors.

Have you checked out the movie yet? Did it make you see Will Smith in a new light? Let us know in the comments below.