Movies

A painfully misguided attempt at adapting the soaringly beautiful Toni Morrison novel to the screen.Oprah Winfrey was death to this movie. I remember her promoting it like it was medicine, something everyone should see because it would be good for them. And her ridiculous stories about channeling her slave ancestors while playing the character of Sethe were embarrassing, given the mediocre performance she delivers. Her slave ancestors must be rolling in their graves.Director Jonathan Demme and company seem to completely miss the point of Morrison's novel, which was that African-Americans need to move past the atrocities of their heritage if they are ever to grow as a people. Instead, the movie focuses on pain, anger and resentment, and leaves one just feeling downright bad.Grade: D

READ THE BOOK, PEOPLE, READ THE BOOK! The book helped me understand the film and the film helped me understand the book. This is an amazing piece of work. Winfrey gives a moving and observant performance and Thandie Newton is startling. Some scenes are intense, making you think whether you would kill your child. I didn't notice any gliches and I think the film screams for Oscars. I think this whole slave movie thing going on is getting boring but when they are made with such power and great directing and acting, I praise God for it! Demme gives us one of the most touching ghost stories and certainly the strangest, in a while.

In some ways it was great to see how true the film was to the source material, often capturing the powerful emotions and the horrific effects slavery can have on African-Americans at the time. However, because it is so faithful it makes the film almost 3 hours long so it does drag at points.Thandie Newton's portrayal of Beloved is rightly weird and disturbing, whilst Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover were very convincing for me as Sethe and Paul D respectively. The main issue with the film is that knowledge of the book is almost essential going in, as I can see how it may be difficult to grasp exactly what is going on in the narrative without that prior information. Other than that I feel it truly captures the essence of Morrison's novel and can be very thought-provoking at times.