Middle of Nowhere

It's possible to tell a story about the so-called negative aspects of a culture without belittling the group or individuals involved. This is something directors, particularly of African descent, seem to be lacking, imo. In other words, if there's no brutality depicted , then it's "not capturing the rawness of reality" ...Ms DuVernay defies this false notion and I've noticed she has been stealthily doing so for quite a while now. I would be proud to call her my daughter, sister, or partner if I had such a relationship with her. unfortunately, I'll just have to settle for a proud, admiring fan. The lesson here: It's all about humanizing the characters, not trashing their existence, Well done!.

Omari Hardwick is in prison on a ten-year sentence. Wife Emayatzy Corinealdi tells him he's going to behave, and get out in five years. He reluctantly agrees. Yet while he's in prison, she's in a prison of her own outside, stuck with trying to pay the bills for lawyers, fighting with her mother, riding the late-night bus from work to home. It comes to a head at his parole hearing, where she hears details of some of the things he has been doing, and is devastated.

There have been a lot of movies about men (and women) in prison, but few, if any about what the writer-director of this movie, Ava DuVernay, calls the "invisible prisoners." Miss Corinealdi is excellent in a fully written role, stuck, conflicted, and fumbling. With Lorraine Toussaint and David Oyelowo

Desperately searching indie sites to find something to watch. Idie Wire had Emayatzy Corinealdi's performance as one of the best in the decade and I had not seen the film so I watched it. Her performance is perfect, can't wait to see her other stuff. I loved this movie because it is a true love story. As the years pass while she waits for her husband to get out of jail she grows in the best of ways. She sees her part in how she got into the situation. The repeated scenes where she imagines being in bed with or walking hand and hand with her incarcerated husband really struck home. Not because I have had an incarcerated love but because sometimes intense love continues even when it is over. This movie touched my heart. I have not seen another movie that nailed that feeling inside that I have about my past great love. It must be a hard thing to do in a movie since I have not seen any other film maker get it right until now.

Go and see this film!! Ignore the critics and lame ratings!! This movie unfolds like a blossom and it's a great film for both men and women! It is a powerful and emotionally deep experience - without being heavy handed. The acting is phenomenal and the characters are She's innocent, hopeful, committed, determined and blind. Her husband is cautious, realistic, hanging on, while trying to push her away. This is a movie of incredible dialog and subtle physicality - the twitch of a lip, the pleading or twinkling in the eyes, and the anger/frustration in tightly drawn lips. I love the film's murkiness and incomplete glimpses of the couple's history. There's not a lot of time spent trying to show how they got to where they are.

The portrayal of a family as strained, fragmented and individually isolated was stunning and the scenes between the mother and her 2 daughters -- acted as levers that the director used to shift the film's pace. The movie also gently taps at class and socio-economic constructs within the African-American community.

"Variety" magazine's reckless and inaccurate review (IMHO) completely missed the point of the movie and of the ONE line he quoted - yet misinterpreted. Hint/hint: the line is "an ode to the fact that most men -- even black men 'ie, brothas' lean toward flicks - where you don't have to follow the dialog; that is...you don't really have to pay attention!! It was NOT a statement alluding to actual or perceived reading abilities.

The movie feels much longer than it is, but it was a wonderful savoring. At the end, I was satisfied...yet still would have been content with more! Compared to the movie "Blue Valentine" featuring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling, this movie is a true 10!

It is always refreshing to see good indie movies exploring dark themes in a sensitive and almost lyric way. These are, incidentally, the two major strong points of this movie.

There are many titles, some rather good ones, exploring incarceration an its effects on the person behind bars. Multiple angles and story lines are explored, almost always from the incarcerated point of view.

'Middle of Nowhere', instead, puts the focus on an accomplished young woman whose life hangs still when her young husband is incarcerated for a long term, and makes the movie about the effects of incarceration on people who are on the outside, supposedly free, but actually suffering by proxy a set of restrictions and struggles that derive from the fact that a loved one or in-law is not present. That is an interesting take on the subject.

Nonetheless, the script is just too slow. There are several cogent reasons for a script to be slow, such as character development, parallel narratives - but none of them could possible justify it here. Thus, it becomes very difficult to keep paying attention on what the director had in mind as dozens of minutes are just fillers that, in turn, are juxtaposed with some pivotal scenes that are paradoxically too hurried up.