This historical drama about a group of slaves who rebel aboard a schooner and whose fight for freedom reaches all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court is best described as a noble failure. It's got some splendid performances, including Djimon Hounsou as the slave Cinque and Anthony Hopkins as the elderly John Quincy Adams, and some riveting sequences, But it's also endlessly talky and static, leaving it without the emotional resonance of Schindler's List or even The Color Purple. A film about history shouldn't feel like trying to stay awake through a history lesson.