Beloved (1998) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Directed by Jonathan Demme
The film adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved is a haunting, poetic epic that's part ghost story, part love story, part family drama.
It's a powerful, eerie story that, quite frankly, those with a lack of or little imagination will have difficulty following or understanding.
Looming over this story is the abomination of slavery and the scars, both physical and psychological, it has left on its victims.
Set in rural Ohio in 1873, the movie tells of Sethe (Oprah Winfrey), her daughter, Denver (Kimberly Elise), Sethe's lover, Paul D (Danny Glover), and the strange, young woman (Thandie Newton) who enters their lives. She calls herself Beloved.
She is an otherworldly woman-child who appears on Sethe's doorstep covered with insects and drooling like a baby.
Sethe takes her into her home and into her heart for Sethe is haunted by a dark and bloody secret - an infant daughter she killed to keep her and her family from being returned to slavery.
Is Beloved the spirit of that daughter? That is the mystery that intrigues the audience.
Beloved offers an opportunity for a strong ensemble of actresses to demonstrate their talents. It is the richest interaction of women on screen since the 1993 screen version of another best seller, Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club.
First and foremost is Winfrey's Sethe. She is a fierce, yet enigmatic individual, determined to make a life for herself and her family as free individuals. The scars she carries, literally and figuratively, drive her to try to protect her family from the ghosts of her past.
Winfrey's superb performance should come as no surprise to those who remember her remarkable film debut a decade ago in Steven Spielberg's film version of Alice Walker's The Color Purple.
Winfrey, who purchased the rights to Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about 10 years ago, has nurtured this project for a decade. She has poured her heart and soul into Sethe, creating a woman of indomitable fortitude.
Newton has the showiest as well as the most difficult chore, bringing to life the unearthly Beloved. At times Newton's performance comes very close to an Exorcist-like parody, as she croaks, drools and hisses her way through the script, flailing her arms and walking like a child who has just mastered her first steps.
She is demanding and dependent, childlike innocent and darkly demonic.
Newton walks an acting tightrope with very few missteps. It is a brave and daring performance.
The high points of Beloved are those scenes featuring veteran performer Beah Richards as Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother-in-law. She's a freed slave turned preacher whose sermons are meant to lift the hearts and souls of a newly freed people. Her sermon from atop a rock in which the men begin to dance around her while the children laugh and the women wail is magical.
Richards is an island of tenderness in a movie filled with some horrific and brutal images.
As Denver, Elise has the thankless task of allowing herself to be overshadowed by the more flamboyant Newton. Yet as the film progresses, Denver gains strength, resolve and backbone. She starts as someone needing the protection of her mother and ends up an independent woman fighting to save her mother's soul.
Elise, with doe-like eyes and determined mouth, could pass as Winfrey's daughter. This fine young actress probably delivers the most subtle and strongest performance in the film.
Glover brings humor and dignity to the role of Paul D. He's a good man whose feet, as he says, have done a lot of walking since being freed. He finds a home and works to make a life with Sethe, trying to help her conquer the specters of her past.
The bond that binds these two are Sweet Home, the ironic name of the Kentucky plantation on which they were both slaves. The flashback scenes showing the brutalization of the slaves are horrifying, yet somehow disconcerting. Their tone seems more Mandingo and less Morrison. Thankfully, Beloved only contains a few lurid flashbacks, not enough to throw the film out of kilter.
Director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) tells much of his story in close-up, making Beloved an intimate experience between character and audience, bringing the viewer into the lives of Sethe and her family.
Screenwriters Akosua Busia, Richard LeGravenese and Adam Brooks did a masterful job of translating Morrison's sometime elliptical novel into cinematic terms.
Rachel Portman's uplifting score adds to the tenor of the film as does Tak Fujimoto's brilliant cinematography.
Beloved, at nearly three hours in length, is an outstanding film, featuring Oscar-caliber performances from its leading players. It is a literate endeavor, but one literal-minded people may not totally appreciate. It is a film in which you must allow your imagination free rein.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net
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