The_Limey

OK it looks nice, and in Keitel and MacDowell it has two solid actors as leads. In the end though it is a rather tired, and illogical, attempt at spinning a southern yarn, set in the depression, about a large brood, and an old black man who returns to the family of his former owners to die.

The idea is fine, but the execution is lazy. Keitel is supposed to be a 'diamond in the rough', the kind of character who appears gruff and uncouth, but who at heart cares about people. This is portrayed by having him say 'god damn' and 'sh*t' in every single sentence. MacDowell is supposed to be an overworked, harrased mother of many. This is portrayed by having her drink beer in every single scene, and say 'suge' in every single sentence.

This leads to an awful lot of this...

Husband: God Damn, sh*t, I ain't got time to be burying some old black man.

Wife: Calm down suge, have a beer.

It tries, it really does, and i is certainly not a bad movie, but it has very little to offer beyond a simple story, decent actors, and some wonderful locations.

Simple rule, if you are going to make a movie vehicle for a non-actor, surround them with some good actors, so if they turn out to have all the acting ability of a tin of tuna, you still have some hope of making the movie just bad, rather than bowel clenchingly awful.

This rule is ignored, the result is a piece of dross, that was so bad Mariah had a nervous breakdown when she watched it, so bad that Virgin executives gave her $15 million as long as they would never have to watch it again, so bad, well you get the point.

If you want a storyline, easy, mom is black, dad is white. Mom doesn't want her, dad doesn't want her. She wants to be a star, black and white guys fight over her. Lots of tradgedy. Lots of singing, lots of walking around in tight dresses. Everything ends up OK.

I can think of nothing that would recomend this. If you are a fan of Mariah, she isn't photographed that well, there are no big stand out tunes. If you aren't, then, you are looking at a movie which everyone involved with is obviously embarrased about.