Archives: A
- E F - N O
- Z Posters Message
Boards
Who
We Are and Why We Do What We Do
BLU-RAY DVDs:
Batman Begins
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Bourne Trilogy
Cars
Casino Royale
Cloverfield
Dark Knight
the Duchess
Enchanted
Fifth Element
Hellboy
Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter years 1-5
Ice Age
Incredible HULK
Independence Day
Iron Man
Juno
Kill Bill 1 & 2
Kung Fu Panda
Mamma Mia!
Men in Black
No Country for Old Men
Persepolis
Pirates: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates: At World's End
Rambo box set
Ratatouille
Spiderwick Chronicles
Sleeping Beauty
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Terminator
Terminator 2
Top Gun
Total Recall
Transformers SE
300
Ultimate Matrix coll
Twilight
Underworld
V for Vendetta
Wall-E SE
X-Men Trilogy
Zack & Miri Make a Porno
We're Kidlet Safe
Search engine
by FreeFind
click to search site
Now in Release:
Adam Resurrected
An American Affair
Cadillac Records
Che
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Coraline
Curious Case of
Benjamin Button
Day the Earth Stood Still
Defiance
Donkey Punch
Doubt
The Express
Four Christmases
Frost/Nixon
Inkheart
The International
Milk
New in Town
Pink Panther 2
Pride and Glory
Revolutionary Road
Role Models
Sex Drive
Slumdog Millionaire
The Spirit
Taken
Two Lovers
The Uninvited
Watchmen
What Just Happened
While She Was Out
DVDs on Sale:
Alice
in Wonderland
An American in Paris
Batman
Begins
Bambi
Beauty
and the Beast
Blade
Runner
Cinderella
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
E.T.
Forrest
Gump
Gone
With the Wind
Harry
Potter yrs 1-4 set
Harry
Potter Order of Phoenix
Alfred Hitchcock set
Incredible Hulk SE
Indiana
Jones trilogy
Iron Man SE
Kung Fu Panda
The
Lion King
Lord
of Rings 12 discs
Mamma Mia! SE
Mary
Poppins 40th LE
Marx Bros set
Ultimate
Matrix set
Monty
Python - Holy Grail
Pirates of Caribbean 3
Ratatouille
Saw I - IV set
Saw III (unrated)
Saw IV (unrated)
Saw V (unrated)
Shrek Trilogy
Simpsons Movie
Sin
City
Sleeping
Beauty
South
Park Movie
Spider-Man Trilogy
Spiderwick Chronicles
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Twilight
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Wall-E SE
X-Men Trilogy
Zack & Miri make a Porno
Looney
Toons
Golden Age DVD
Volume
1
Volume
2
Volume
3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD
Season
1
Season
2
Season
3
Popeye the Sailor DVD
v.1 1933 - 1938
v.2 1938 - 1940
v.3 1941 - 1943
75th anniversary coll.ed.
Star
Trek TOS (TV)
Star
Trek TNG
Star
Trek Films
 |
Down in the Delta |
| Starring
Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman Jr., Esther Rolle, Mary Alice, Loretta Devine,
Wesley Snipes Screenplay by Myron Goble Directed by Maya Angelou website: www.miramax.com |
IN SHORT: Good story idea hampered by lethargic execution.
Down in the Delta is the story of a family in tatters: A man and a woman have not talked in years due to a dispute over an inheritance; A grandmother struggles to keep her daughter coherent enough to raise her grandchildren; A husband struggles to maintain as normal a life as possible as his wife withers in front of him, wracked by disease.
Down in the Delta is the first film directed by the poet Maya Angelou and, regardless the complexion of the creators, it is a story which should connect to each and every one of us. It is a story that is meant to show that hope exists at the end of a trail littered with adversity and, as written by Georgia native and first time screenwriter Myron Goble, it takes forever to play out. The characters evolve slowly because that's how real life is. Terminally slow. So slow that an urban native like Cranky was yearning for any kind of cliche to happen to spark some life into the movie.
Damned thing is, the point of Down in the Delta is that we all need to know where we come from, something that is very near and dear to Cranky's heart. We need to have knowledge of our personal family's history, in the movie's case symbolized by a silver candelabra that has been passed down to the eldest of each generation of a family surnamed Sinclair.
In the projects of Chicago lives Grandma Rosa Sinclair (Mary Alice), her illiterate and usually strung out daughter Loretta (Alfre Woodard) and grandchildren Thomas (Mpho Koaho) and Tracy (Kulani Hassen). Thomas is bright, clean and motivated. Self-help tapes play in his walkman and he does a brisk business selling Polaroid Tourist portraits along the Lake Michgan waterfront. Rosa is feeling her age. She is not strong enough to raise Tracy, who screams like a crack baby and, at age 3 or 4, still sleeps in a crib. Rosa knows the only way to save her family is to get them the hell out of Chicago. To do so, she pawns the family heirloom, a sterling silver candelabra nicknamed Nathan. Rosa remains behind and challenges Loretta to get straight and work hard enough to get Nathan out of pawn.
Destination: Mississippi. There, Rosa's brother-in-law Earl (Al Freeman Jr.) runs a fairly prosperous restaurant catering to the workers at the local chicken processing plant. In a pleasing bit of irony, Earl and his wife Annie (Esther Rolle) live in the old "big house," where the "white" Sinclair family lived back in slavery days. Annie has Alzheimer's Disease and Earl is aided by a paid helper named Zenia (Loretta Devine). Even with the help, the effort is taking its toll. When the call from Rosa comes, Earl refuses to help. When Rosa threatens to out and out sell Nathan, Earl buckles. The city cousins meet the country cousins, (which include Wesley Snipes as the son who moved away to Atlanta, meaning he too does not want to come home) and everybody learns just a little bit more about the world outside the symbolic ghettos they live in.
Watching the faces of actors Woodard and Freeman, you know there is a significant story to the history of Nathan. It comes out in tiny little servings as the script gently unwinds. By the time the true meaning of the icon is revealed, it is too late to strike the kind of emotional chord it seeks to. It does not make me happy to report the fact, friends, but Cranky has seen Down in the Delta twice, in rough and in final cut. Though much improved, the film is, at one hour fifty, terminally long.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Down in the Delta, he would have paid...
$3.00
Rent it. Then, when you get the point, tell your family's story to your kids. Or take the time to find out your own.
On a sad note, Down in the Delta marks Esther Rolle's final role. G'bye Florida.