Amores divididos

The first time I saw this film I rated it 8; the 2nd time it got a 9. There is much visual beauty in the film: a lovely, serene setting and many gorgeous women. The film focussed on the devastation caused by a father who could not resist beautiful women even though he loved his family. As the film ended, I was left counting the number of people who would have considerable guilt to deal with but the end was, nevertheless, very satisfying.

You know how you get when you're deeply into a novel and you can't stop turning the pages... then take a bathroom break before you start watching this movie. Only of course you have to just deal with the pace of the movie which is great in this case and leaves not one dull moment.

I think this was one of the best movies of 1997 and should have received more recognition. I look forward to what Kasi Lemmons does next.

This film is now showing on cable here in Australia, and is a far better than average offering.

Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, the film is a powerful family drama set in the sixties in the south of the USA. It stars Samuel L Jackson as a small town doctor with a wandering eye. The story is told from the viewpoint of his middle child, Eve, wonderfully played by Jurnee Smollett, who sees her middle-class family life threatened by her father's infidelities.

No tale set in a bayou village could exist without references to black magic and voodoo, and this film also has them as a rather central part of the plot. But these elements are handled skilfully and believably, and heighten the tension that develops.

One of the interesting tools used by Lemmons is to tell and retell a story from different characters' perspectives, asking the viewer to determine which is more truthful, and indeed, whether the truth is paramount.

Jackson gives a sparkling performance as Dr Louis Batiste, a man of warmth and generosity who is well regarded by the local community that he serves. His family is seemingly a happy and close one, until the children begin to question some of the adult behaviour they witness.

Jurnee Smollett's Eve is the main protagonist around whom much of the story is centred, and she effortlessly moves back and forth between being a precocious brat and a young woman with powerful emotions. The rest of the cast is also very good, including a voluptuous Lisa Nicole Carson as the temptress Mattie Mereaux, and Diahann Carroll as a bayou witch.

This film moves along at a good pace and is a little more than you might expect.

"MEMORY IS A SELECTION OF IMAGES, SOME ELUSIVE, OTHERS PRINTED INDELIBLY ON THE BRAIN. THE SUMMER I KILLED MY FATHER, I WAS 10 YEARS OLD"

With those shocking opening frames from the movie, 'Eve's Bayou'(1997), I was hooked from start go.

'Eve's Bayou' is an anomaly. It has achieved a rare distinction of excellence in all departments of film making; from the direction to the writing, from the acting to the cinematography.

Here was a film not content with telling a tale of nostalgic retrospection. Instead, it shocked the senses of the unsuspecting viewers with an eerie collage of imagery, underscoring the chilling suspense with an undercurrent of tumultuous emotion (jealousy, loss and sadness; anger, vengeance and guilt) all culminating into the inevitable foreshadowed tragedy.

But of course, this is far too distinguished a film to present an easy resolution. From there spring forth the painful revelation on the very essence of memory and the perception of truth, distilled and faceted with the passage of time. A valuable lesson indeed.

Poetic and shadowy, the dream-like moods sustained throughout this poignant film is its over-riding strength. For here was a film which sights and sound has transcended the mere plot convention of its humble genre origins. Thankfully, the film turned out the better for it. Coupled with the celebrated fact that this was the product of a first time director(Kasi Lemmons), one can't help but feel the divine intervention bestowed upon this film to make it such an magically entrancing experience.

Alongside 'Shawshank Redemption' and 'The Sweet Hereafter', 'Eve's Bayou' certainly ranks as one of the most hauntingly beautiful piece of cinema ever committed to film.

I had never heard of this film when my wife ordered it from NetFlix, and I keep wondering why. This is a terrific flick. Jurnee Smollett as Eve is truly excellent, and not just "good for a kid," or "good but annoyingly precocious," she is just plain good. The story is wonderful, and I love the fact that the race of the characters is hardly mentioned. It's a story about people, and it doesn't matter on what continent their ancestors originated. The cast is uniformly excellent, especially Samuel Jackson (one of the film industry's most versatile actors), and Debbi Morgan. Small parts portrayed by Branford Marsalis and Vondie Curtis Hall are very nicely done, and add color to the background of friends and relatives of the Batiste family. I enjoy the way the film shows us the world of psychic perception and Voodoo, and the degree to which belief in them can affect behavior. The location filming is wonderfully evocative of the steaming south, and the direction spot-on. I recommend this film.