Eve's Bayou

Eve's Bayou_360P

Most films are made merely to entertain. That's not to imply that being entertained is a shallow or unimportant goal, but an intelligent movie fan can only take so many horror sequels, prom date mishaps and microwaved action snacks before they begin to devolve. Just like it's nice to just turn your brain off for a movie like Charlie's Angels, there's also a profound sense of pleasure in taking in a brilliantly twisted film like Eve's Bayou and letting your synapses warm up. The brain is a muscle, and you have to challenge it once in a while. And in the case of this film, this is an exercise in pure cinematic bliss. Do our memories play tricks on us? Do we, at least subconsciously, choose our memories? Would we be better off going only by cold, hard facts and not relying on something so subjective as memory? Fantastically taut, crafty and utterly original, Eve's Bayou answers these questions and asks a thousand more. It's ironic, given the subject matter, but it's a film you'll remember for a long time. Grade: A

Jussie Smollett is a the daughter of Doctor Samuel L. Jackson and Lynn Whitfield. She's just got her first period, her father is cheating on her mother, and she's angry and confused. We all have sorts of movies we like, and those we dislike. For a movie about the sort of people I have no interest in -- small town girls on the verge of womanhood in Louisiana -- this is an awfully fine movie. The characters are well written, with histories that go back more than a hundred years, the camerawork by Amy Vincent makes the hideous tangle of half-dead bayous look interesting, and Debbie Morgan has a great turn as the relative who offers to kill someone with voodoo for Miss Smollett. Neither does this movie either pander to or denigrate Miss Smollett's issues; at that age, the soul is afflicted by uncertainty, and her faulty and faltering efforts to deal with that terrifying state seem real. This is a fine debut for director Kasi Lemmons. I shall keep my eyes open for other movies of hers.

The story is set in 1962 Louisiana. The Batiste family is headed by charming doctor Louis (Sam Jackson). Though he is married to beautiful Roz, he has a weakness for attractive female patients. One night Louis trysts with married and sexy Metty Mereaux, not knowing that he is observed by his youngest daughter Eve, who is there by accident. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert naming it the best film of 1997. Despite the praise, it seems to have been largely forgotten, and did not merit a single Oscar nomination that year. Going in to the picture today (2016), I had never heard of it, nor did I have a clue what it was about. The best part of this movie is that you can never be sure how much is real. Because most of it is told through the eyes of a 10-year old, some things may be misunderstood or distorted. A second viewing might be helpful.

Only one Black person (John Singleton for Boys N the Hood) and three women (Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for The Piano and Sophia Coppola for Lost in Translation) have been nominated for the Best Director Oscar to date. Both those numbers should have swelled in 1997 with Kasi Lemmons' atmospheric direction of the chilling drama Eve's Bayou. This nail-biting tale of family tension in the Louisiana bayou in the early 1960s was among the finest films of the 1997, but was completely bypassed in the Oscar race amidst the hysteria over Titanic. Regrettably, Lemmons (who won an award for Outstanding Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review for Eve's Bayou) has had only two small budget directorial opportunities since. This is an amazing piece of cinema with fine performances from the ensemble cast. Samuel L. Jackson, Jurnee Smollet and Debbi Morgan all turn in A+ performances.

This film is now showing on cable here in Australia, and is a far better than average offering. Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, the film is a powerful family drama set in the sixties in the south of the USA. It stars Samuel L Jackson as a small town doctor with a wandering eye. The story is told from the viewpoint of his middle child, Eve, wonderfully played by Jurnee Smollett, who sees her middle-class family life threatened by her father's infidelities. No tale set in a bayou village could exist without references to black magic and voodoo, and this film also has them as a rather central part of the plot. But these elements are handled skilfully and believably, and heighten the tension that develops. One of the interesting tools used by Lemmons is to tell and retell a story from different characters' perspectives, asking the viewer to determine which is more truthful, and indeed, whether the truth is paramount. Jackson gives a sparkling performance as Dr Louis Batiste, a man of warmth and generosity who is well regarded by the local community that he serves. His family is seemingly a happy and close one, until the children begin to question some of the adult behaviour they witness. Jurnee Smollett's Eve is the main protagonist around whom much of the story is centred, and she effortlessly moves back and forth between being a precocious brat and a young woman with powerful emotions. The rest of the cast is also very good, including a voluptuous Lisa Nicole Carson as the temptress Mattie Mereaux, and Diahann Carroll as a bayou witch. This film moves along at a good pace and is a little more than you might expect.

For all the obvious talent and technique that went into "Eve's Bayou," I'm sorry to say the total experience left me cold and unmoved. From the start there seemed to be a lack of focus. Just what was being said and why? The film seemed to move from one crises or unpleasant situation to another, without a central theme or motivating factor. All the characters seemed to be in need of therapy, and a reason for giving them attention was unclear. A major problem was in the scripting, which for me lacked cohesiveness. The actors were uniformly strong, as were the production values, including Kasi Lemmons' direction; what was lacking was Lemmons' central theme. It was a long journey down these sad and dismal swamplands, and without a hint of a plot, one seemed to drift from episode to episode aimlessly. It's really a shame so much genuine talent was to a degree wasted on such an uncohesive tale. There have been many casualties resulting from the death of the plot device in contemporary drama. "Eve's Bayou" is a prime example.

The first time I saw this film I rated it 8; the 2nd time it got a 9. There is much visual beauty in the film: a lovely, serene setting and many gorgeous women. The film focussed on the devastation caused by a father who could not resist beautiful women even though he loved his family. As the film ended, I was left counting the number of people who would have considerable guilt to deal with but the end was, nevertheless, very satisfying.

I was flicking through the TV Guide a few nights ago and saw that there was a film about to begin called EVE'S BAYOU . Despite sounding like a brand of soap I decided to watch simply because it starred Samuel L Jackson who is always value for money Jackson plays Doctor Louis Batiste who is a naughty boy since he is caught playing " horses " with a female patient by his ten year old daughter Eve . What then becomes clear is that the story isn't seen through the eyes of Dr Batiste but by Eve so Jackson's casting amounts to something slightly more than a cameo . The story itself is beautifully filmed and acted by the cast but is woefully too low concept to be of much interest for those of us who tuned in hoping to see a funky actor dude battle the forces of voodoo . You read that right - voodoo actually features in the plot somewhere and it's nowhere as exciting as it sounds