Beloved (1998)

Directed by Jonathan Demme. Starring Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, Kimberly Elise, Thandiwe Newton, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Hill Harper, Beah Richards, Albert Hall, Kessia Embry, Harry Northup. [R]

A good example of the old adage where not everything that works on the page works on the screen—this may be a dutiful attempt to bring the feeling, spirit and imagination of Toni Morrison’s, ahem, beloved book to the big screen, but what’s thrown up there is overlong, sluggish, overwrought, repetitive, and rarely truly involving or moving. The ostensible protagonist, Sethe (played by Winfrey and Hamilton in older/younger versions), gets lost in the film’s haunted, post-Civil War illusion of memory and pain, and the adaptation too literally interprets the supernatural elements and titular phantasmic reincarnation, brought to life by Newton in the sort of “elemental” performance that summons bad memories of Jodie Foster in Nell. Most of the acting is adequate, its production details and photography even better, but the pic doesn’t come together, and when it strikes wrong notes, the off-key tone drags through into the next scene, which only makes it harder to follow the chronologically and corporeality-elusive narrative. Those tempted to stick with the movie through its winding, unsuccessful passages should be warned about the muted payoff waiting for them at the end. Coincidentally, Newton’s first name, Thandiwe, means “beloved”. Jason Robards and Irma P. Hall make cameo appearances.

44/100