Movie Review: Will Smith-led 'Emancipation' is an action thriller

A scene showing Will Smith in Emancipation. (Courtesy)

It comes as some relief that Antoine Fuqua's "Emancipation," starring Will Smith as a runaway slave in Civil War-era Louisiana, is not, at least traditionally speaking, an Oscar movie.

Despite the film's important historical backdrop, its awards-season timing and its inevitable connection to last March's Academy Awards ceremony, the site of the Slap, "Emancipation" is not quite the solemn prestige picture you could easily mistake it for. It's an action thriller.