After I watched the trailers, I knew I had to see this movie. I had not yet seen a Mario Van Peebles directed movie I liked until now. It helped that Michael Clarke Duncan, who has 90 movies under his belt, has a face and build that gets immediate recognition (Oscar nominated for supporting role in The Green Mile), was the co-star to Morgan Simpson. Duncan delivers a good performance. Also helpful was the supporting role by Tom Skerritt who has 150 movies under his belt and has equal face recognition. As for Morgan Simpson, who has the lead in this movie, he was completely unknown to me but I was sold on his performance. He wrote the story so he had the benefit of knowing exactly what his character was suppose to feel and why.
The story has a few weak spots but they don't deter the viewer from keeping focused on all the good points. To use the film's own expression, Duncan delivers some fortune cookie wisdom, but it is no less valuable wisdom as far as I'm concerned. Even the music delivers wisdom to those who pay attention. The four IMDb users who wrote reviews (there were only 4 before mine) gave the movie pretty good ratings and their reviews all have one thing in common which I wholeheartedly agree with: The music in the movie is really good, unless you hate the blues and country styles (especially the blues). The story has in the first 75% to 80% of the movie a well planned set-up for a surprise you don't see coming and which may bring tears to some viewers with kinder hearts; one other fellow reviewer admitted experiencing just that. Thankfully, Skerritt's character made a point in the movie that you need to cry sometimes to purge the sadness that will otherwise weigh you down and it feels better after. We all know that to be true.
If you consider yourself a movie lover or one that has discriminating taste, I hesitate not in recommending it.
The story has a few weak spots but they don't deter the viewer from keeping focused on all the good points. To use the film's own expression, Duncan delivers some fortune cookie wisdom, but it is no less valuable wisdom as far as I'm concerned. Even the music delivers wisdom to those who pay attention. The four IMDb users who wrote reviews (there were only 4 before mine) gave the movie pretty good ratings and their reviews all have one thing in common which I wholeheartedly agree with: The music in the movie is really good, unless you hate the blues and country styles (especially the blues). The story has in the first 75% to 80% of the movie a well planned set-up for a surprise you don't see coming and which may bring tears to some viewers with kinder hearts; one other fellow reviewer admitted experiencing just that. Thankfully, Skerritt's character made a point in the movie that you need to cry sometimes to purge the sadness that will otherwise weigh you down and it feels better after. We all know that to be true.
If you consider yourself a movie lover or one that has discriminating taste, I hesitate not in recommending it.