Ghosts of Mississippi (PG-13) *** Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin Directed by Rob Reiner A Review by Frankie Paiva
The creepy Byron de la Beckwith (played extremely well by James Woods who got an Oscar nomination) kills civil rights leader Medger Evers in his own driveway, that was in 1963. When he is put on trial he faces an all white, all male jury, of course he doesn't get convicted (he was put on trial twice) because the judge is the toughest and most racist judge in all of Mississippi.
Then, for some reason, his widow Myrlie Evers (Goldberg) decides that she wants to re-open the case after all this time, it's 1989 now, and most people could care less. But she soon forms a bond with Bobby DeLaughter (Baldwin) a lawyer who pursues the case for over five years. His job is to track down witnesses (most of them dead) and keep the case going even if no real evidence is found. When he first views the case as, "the case we'll work on in his spare time" is soon grows to become his obsession because "is it ever too late to do the right thing?" He eventually gathers up enough evidence (with the help of William H. Macy, god, is he like in every movie ever made or what?) and conjures up a new trial.
The movie stretches on for too long, do you really need to see him find the KKK members from long ago sitting in denim on a huge bale of hay? What about the uneeded romance between him and a hospital worker? I suppose that this is essential to painting a picture for what it was like long ago, but after a while it gets boring. It could have easily been cute to about 95 or 105 minutes, which would have made it much more of a pleasureable experience.
This isn't to say the movie isn't great. I was chilled and disgusted every time Woods appeared on the screen. I would have loved to see more of his performance. Goldberg is also good, it's amazing that she can still act after appearing in so many stupid, screwball comedies. Plus the film is rated PG-13 so younger teens can see it, yes they will be bored out of their minds, but I hope some parents force it upon their children to see this movie. It's a great movie (and like the back of the video says) "that every American should see." Overall, the movie is a long (but moving) experience, and I give it *** stars.
A Review by Frankie Paiva The 12 Year-Old Movie Reviewer E-Mail me at SwpStke@aol.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews