THE VISIT
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Urbanworld Films Director: Jordan Walker Pearlman Writer: Kosmond Russell (play), Jordan Walker Pearlman Cast: Hill Harper, Obba Babatunde, Rae Dawn Chong, Billy Dee Williams, Marla Gibbs, Phylicia Rashad, Talia Shire, David Clennon
Remember when you were a senior in high school applying to three colleges: one that you really wanted to make and the other two for backups, two that you dreaded going to? The letter arrives in May. The tension mounts as you open the tightly sealed envelope. Your hands shake. You ask your brother or sister to read you the contents. Or maybe you're not applying to college at this time but you had taken your road test four days ago and the small envelope arrives from the motor vehicle department. Same tension. In "The Visit," the film debut of writer-director Jordan Walker-Pearlman (who adapted Kosmond Russell's play for the screen), a convict serving a twenty-five year term in a Los Angeles County prison receives a letter considerably more important than the aforementioned from the parole board. He thought he made a decent impression, but still...his hands shake. He asks the guard to read the note to him. Will he be a free man in a couple of days or, now dying of AIDS, will he spend the rest of his life in his solitary cell? I've got to tell you: I felt the same when Alex Waters (Hill Harper) received that letter, having seen him struggle through the 5-member parole board hearing, that I felt when I got that envelope from the motor vehicle bureau at the age of eighteen. That's how involving the film had become by then despite its slow start, its obvious origin as a theatrical piece, and the strangely muffled sound coming from the theater speakers.
While the film takes place both in the correctional institution and in the mind of the frustrated inmate--convicted of a rape he insists he never committed--the real story deals with the effects on Alex of family estrangement. Based on a true story of playwright Kosmond Russell's relationship with his brother in an Ohio prison, "The Visit" tells of an angry fellow whose moralistic father, Henry (Billy Dee Williams) only reluctantly visits his son after some time because he is feels that the boy has brought shame upon the family, though Henry's wife Lois (Marla Gibbs) continues to love him with qualification. Alex's successful brother, Tony (Obba Babatunde), drops into for a chat only after a full year, using the excuse that the jail is no place for his wife and children to be. Tormented by the passive belligerence shown him by his family, Alex is fortunate in being able to confide in the understanding and sympathetic psychiatrist, Dr. Coles (Phylicia Rashad), without whose warmth and guidance Alex might well have lost all desire to live.
We never do find out whether Alex is guilty of the rape he persistently denies, even refraining from showing the parole board any remorse because, he insists, he never committed that crime. But this is not relevant since Walker-Pearlman is interested in penetrating the mind of the prisoner, demonstrating to us in cinematic imagery some of the thoughts and feelings going through the poor guy's mind-- both banal and startling. Walker-Pearlman does a particularly good job showing the ways that each character in turn breaks down Alex's wall, with a particularly tender scene involving a former drug addict and incest victim Felicia McDonald (Rae Dawn Chong) who visits the prisoner without advance notice and, at first not recognized for the childhood companion that he once knew, ultimately provides Alex with a tender fantasy of the two dancing slowly and lovingly in the lonely cell.
Along the way we learn the workings of what is perhaps a typical parole board hearing, as the five judges question Alex in turn, trying to find out how the man would cope if on the outside. We are allowed to enter the private discussions of the board, noting the lack of unanimity and the downright verbal battles that the group engage in while reaching a decision.
Best of all is Hill Harper in the central role. Harper is known to the mostly young audience who took in "The Skulls" opposite Joshua Jackson and performed as well in Jonathan Demme's ghost story "Beloved" as well as Spike Lee's "He Got Game." Harper conveys Alex's moods with pathos, epitomizing a man who considers himself unjustly imprisoned, dying of AIDS, who is more solitary than most in that he refuses to socialize with his fellow inmates. If you don't mind the theatrical nature of the work (as I do not), if you are open to a leisurely paced psychological drama which enters the mind of a very unhappy fellow, you might gain the same satisfactions as I.
Not Rated. Running time: 107 minutes. (C) 2000 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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