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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 15.63%
Worth A Look: 4.69%
Just Average: 20.31%
Pretty Crappy: 14.06%
Sucks: 45.31%
4 reviews, 40 user ratings
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| Beloved (1998) |
by Erik Childress
"Oprah Should Stick to Recommending Books"
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Beloved (** ½) - I never thought that any movie could make me appreciate The English Patient - but that’s exactly what Beloved does with it’s seemingly never-ending three-hour length. And my main problem with the film is not that I found it confusing (I didn’t), not that it wasn’t well-acted and directed (It was) but that it was emotionally uninvolving. I wasn’t drawn into this story the way I wanted to be. I watched and walked out of this film with a resounding case of “So What?”The problem then lies at the storyline and I’ll have to give spoilers to explain - so if you feel like seeing the movie - don’t read on. Anyone will know shortly into the film what the big shocking secret of Sethe’s past is. Her house is haunted because of it at the beginning of the story and she deals with it and accepts the poltergeist’s torture perhaps because she feels she deserves it and partly because she wishes to no longer run away from anything. After Paul D (Danny Glover) gets confrontational with the ghost, it goes away - but apparently comes back in the human form of an 18-year old woman, which would be the exact age of Sethe’s daughter. Now when Oprah sees this girl perched up in front of her house, she runs and relieves herself with the ferocity of a firehose as if she’s terrified. The girl identifies herself in a voice that sounds like a combo of E.T. and the devil in The Exorcist - by spelling out the name of Beloved - the name of Sethe’s daughter. But from here on out - Sethe treats her as just some ordinary stranger who eats like E.T. and talks like Jodie Foster in Nell. It’s not until she notices the giant scar on Beloved’s neck that she comes to realize that she’s her daughter. Now, perhaps this scene is meant to show Oprah’s belief that her daughter never really died, but that’s not how it plays. Now while I admit to not loving this film like our nation’s critics and I’ll go out on a limb to call Toni Morrison a little contrived since I’ve read some of her works - I will admit to really liking the performances. Oprah Winfrey is going to get nominated, even without all of the shameless self-promotion she’s plastering around TV, calling this film her “baby”. Hey honey - Oprah - you didn’t write it. Toni Morrison did. But all jokes aside - Oprah is quite convincing and the first kiss she has with Danny Glover is a wonderful moment just in the way that it is acted. Thandie Newton is also very good as Beloved even if her performance is quite borrowed from other better films. I kept waiting for a Buzz Kilman cameo - but apparently was denied. This is also a film that contains a lot of things that we, as an audience, don’t really like to see, and get more squeamish about than in something like Saving Private Ryan (a three-hour film that does, in fact, pull us in emotionally) The film opens with a dog being thrown across the room by the ghost, having his eye hang out of his socket and his leg broken, shaking helplessly. We also the aforementioned firehose pissing scene, a woman’s water breaking, breast milk being forcibly taken by white men, (prompting the line I keep hearing in my head - “They took my milk”), a lot of whip scars which the makeup people seemed to have a field day with, tons of crawling bugs, and Danny Glover’s ass. Sorry - just a little too much verite in my cinema.This review is longer than most because for the most part I was really disappointed but at the same time glad that this film isn’t going to be, in my opinion, one of the best of the year. Although it seems like a lock for numerous nominations, three hours does not necessarily make an emotionally draining film. Just a draining one, period. (Note: One of the best metaphors I can possibly come up with this film was summarized in what I saw walking into the film. As I walked towards the theater - an old woman was walking in by herself - carrying a soda and a large green pillow. She must be involved with the Boy Scouts in some way.)
link directly to this review at http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=430&reviewer=198
originally posted: 02/14/00 23:51:21
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USA
16-Oct-1998 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
06-May-1999 (PG)
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