Stephen Paulmier

Watchable. Superb acting & directing. The only flaw I found was in the attention given to the angst of the American couple; it’s relationship to the other characters was proportionally inappropriate. This left the impression that injustice is distributed evenly among the cultures of the world. This distortion actually works to inform a class conscious analysis of the film that reveals a remarkably powerful critique of bourgeois society. Perhaps this flaw is the films saving grace.

Hollywood does not do Baldwin because it doesn’t have the chops. This film could have been an unusual opportunity for talented actors to develop a serious, life affirming story about the challenge society faces through the struggle to live. Instead the film maker practices the time worn cliché of describing life as a series of sentimental dilemmas over which the characters have little if any control. No single personality or social context receives enough of the film makers attention to develop even the most elementary dramatic weight necessary to engage an audience with any consciousness. The technical cinematic effort to create a kinetic image sacrifices every centimeter of the screen to the idolic worship of the foreground. Every facet of the plot is contrived to excite only the most artificial emotions. Our only reason to care about the characters in the plot is their stoic, unimpeachable physical beauty. They are never given the opportunity to wrestle with an authentic dilemma of human consequence. Many dilemmas are described without using any historical context. Characters are introduced, fondled lovingly by the camera and then reduced to existing in a one dimensional state of sentimentality that offers no creative material for the actors or the director to work with. I am truly challenged to believe the author of the book that the film is based on could have so thinly endowed his story. The irony is that a story about the strongest, most agent social change culture, the black family, is presented as utterly impotent and tragically lost to a world where they have no movement to lead. Nothing could be further from the truth.