Constellation

Stunning performances by Billy Dee Williams, Gabrielle Union, Leslie Ann Warren, and Zoe Saldana. Melissa DeSousa was perfect as the daughter trying to please her daddy (Billy Dee). The scene between Leslie Ann Warren and Rae Dawn Chong was very powerful. The contention between the two women in one mans life came across on screen beautifully. Hill Harpers scene with Billy Dee Williams in the housing project was powerful, sensitive and touching. Miss Unions narration of the story line is unique and memorable. But Zoe Saldana's self searching role was haunting. She emotes talent and deep feelings in her work. Truly destined to greatness. Jordan walker-Perlman's directing really tugs at the heart string with the way he displays the interpersonal relationships of the characters.

I'm going to be generous here and give it a 3 only because I live in Huntsville and it was great to see how well the city was filmed. That said, this movie was pretty bad. It's like they started off with hardly any script and the director just told the actors to stare at each other meaningfully with a lot of music playing over it. And Billy D. Williams looked like he'd rather be anywhere but in this movie. It's just a mess. I think I could write a script better than the dislodge for this film, and I'm no writer.

There is one thing I've seen mentioned throughout the reviews and message boards--everyone is under the impression that the movie begins around World War 2 and actually it seemed more like it was supposed to start out in the late 1950's/early 1960's. While the military was not segregated by then, I'm pretty sure that any troops waiting to board a train would still be segregated in a place like Huntsville, Al. If the beginning of film was supposed to be the 1940's, then Billy D, Lesley Ann & Rae Dawn would have to have been in the 70's and 80's instead of their mid 50's or early 60's.

Don't waste your time unless you really, really like the actors because the story isn't very interesting.

I enjoyed this movie at the Roxbury Film Festival in Boston in August 2005. It showed an interracial family that was clearly professional and it was set in the South in a non-stereotypical way. It also dealt with an ill-fated interracial love-story in a way that I thought was realistic. It had romance, tension, and good acting from all the actors. It did have the never-ending closing that is a feature of so many Hollywood films but I don't hold it against the filmmaker. It was good to see Billy Dee Williams and Lesley Warren, two under-utilized talents in my opinion. One of the ways I judge whether a film is good or not is whether it makes me care about the characters and story and want to know more. Constellation did that. I wanted to know more about Gabrielle Union's character. We see her during her youth and hear about her after her death. I wanted to know more about the intervening years. Also wanted to know more about Billy Dee Williams' character's decision to be come an expatriate. I hope the film gets released and would encourage people who are looking for a good family story to see it.

"Constellation," which begins in 1940's Alabama, tells the tale of a secret, forbidden love between a black woman named Carmel and a white soldier named Bear, whose romance is cut short when he is shipped overseas to fight in the war. Flash forward fifty years to the funeral of Carmel - who never married after breaking up with Bear - which serves as the pretext for all the principal people in her life to gather together to air out their grievances and to thrash out the personal relationship problems that have haunted them all their lives. The participants include her emotionally distant brother and his two ex-wives; her two adult nieces and their respective men folk; and Bear himself, who, despite the fact that the two of them were kept apart all their lives by the restrictions of a racist society, has decided to pay not only for the services, but to put all these people up in one of the swankier hotels in Huntsville, Alabama.

Though there are a goodly number of insightful, touching moments in "Constellation," the movie probably would have been more effective had the screenplay (by director Jordan Walker-Pearlman) not tried to cram so many different characters into such a relatively short space of time (the movie runs barely over an hour and a half). Yes, I understand that the theme of the movie is all about how we form "constellations" with the people who are most important to us in life, but speaking strictly in narrative terms, much too often, the genuinely compelling travails of one character are shunted aside to make room for the far less interesting problems of another. Moreover, the romantic relationship between Carmel and Bear, which is supposed to function as the emotional cornerstone of the movie, is never made all that convincing. We are TOLD that these two people are in love with each other, but we aren't made to FEEL it. In addition, Aunt Carmel is portrayed as such a wise and ethereal earth-mother presence even after death that she is essentially robbed of her own individuality and humanity as a character.

Still, there is much that is good in the movie, starting with the performances of Billy Dee Williams, as a man incapable of making emotional connections with the people in his life, and Rae Dawn Chong, as the daughter who has the most trouble dealing with this reality. They are ably abetted by Lesley Ann Warren, Zoe Saldana, Melissa De Souza, and Hill Harper. The movie also boasts a flavorful soundtrack, filled with an eclectic mixture of musical styles, ranging from classical to hip hop to spiritual. The Huntsville setting also provides a refreshing change for audiences weary of seeing New York, Los Angeles and Chicago constantly being recycled in film after film, as if they were the only urban centers movie makers had to choose from.

The movie does lay its message on a bit thickly towards the end, employing heavy-handed speech-making and rather obvious symbolism to get its points across. It really doesn't need to go to all that effort, since the viewers could probably figure the themes out on their own given half a chance.

Yet, although "Constellation" is a decidedly mixed bag as far as family and social dramas go, it has enough elements of quality to make it worth checking out.

For a person of white decent and growing up in the North before living my life in the South, I found the film to be a step in right direction as far as the storyline. As with anything placed out into public scrutiny, there will always be those who feel it doesn't suit their taste. In the short time being a part of the film, cast and crew, I was allowed to see and feel firsthand the attempts by Jordan and his crew to capture the meaning of and present a subject that at times is too controversial to talk about. Cudos for stepping forward to help us, as a nation, to bridge the gap and clear up the misunderstandings that we allow to cloud our judgment. American's have the right voice their opinions, that is what is great about this country, and am proud to be currently serving to defend this right and equally proud to have been, regardless of how small, a part of this film.