How sad is this?

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I personally think that Toni Morrison book was not an easy material to adapt for cinema. It's a tough film-watching experience for those who haven't read the novel before watching the three-hours long cinematic counterpart, more so to those who have actually read it because it is a novel that is to be read to be appreciated. Even I cannot put to words how I felt when I read Ms. Morrison's powerful prose. I wouldn't do it any justice. I'm not even gonna try. The film is not unforgettable, but what it actually is, is a labor of love from the skilled cinematic craftsmen who gave their all to evoke that particular period in time and the filmmakers who took a gamble in trying to find a wider audience for the film's source material. If not for Ms. Oprah who placed her name on the film she responsible, I would not have checked out the novel. Perhaps a few more people actually took notice to the book sitting on the library bookshelves. Whether or not that is a good idea in the first place as if the Pulitzer Prize committee's seal of approval wasn't an endorsement enough, it doesn't really matter. It's already done and made into a film already. Not much everyone can do about it. And I'm not lodging any complaints.Inspired perfomances from all, including the scenery-chewing take on the titular character by Thandie Newton. The camera seemed to have lovingly captured the radiance of Kimberly Elise's beauty as she immerses herself with the character Denver. And there's also Danny Glover's earnest portrayal of Paul D. The ensemble of actors/actresses. And, of course, Ms. Winfrey, who just slid back, not overwhelming the film of her presence, which was amazing because she could have seriously undermined the whole effort of bringing the novel to life had she not been exact, a walking tight-rope, that performance, in depicting the role of Sethe.But what can be regarded as the centerpiece of this film which is an attempt perhaps to justify it's existence to stand side-by-side with the novel, there's actually two, both of which made it, for me, worth the time I spent watching this film, and made me reconsider my initial rating. The Baby Suggs's speech at the end of the film, it was a fitting editorial decision that definitely paid off, in my opinion. Ms. Beah Richards was just a brilliant actress and a marvel to watch. The emphatic in the delivery of her speech that eases audience as they go to back to their respective real lives, very reassuring. The other one was the moment where Young Sethe realizes that the Schoolteacher have already arrived to claim her kids, me saying LisaGay Hamilton did the character justice is never enough, no words would ever describe how she gave humanity to the character she played in the scenes that followed that. That said, I'm changing my initial rating to B-minus.

Beloved (1998): Dir: Jonathan Demme / Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise, Hill Harper: Powerful film with a title regarding a girl but it may also reference divine love. Flashbacks showcase brutality of a female black slave who is raped by two white students while their teacher looks on. Her husband is killed after being forced to watch. She becomes pregnant but kills the child to keep it from slavery. Years later her house is haunted by a poltergeist manifested into Beloved. An old friend stops by but he fears the spiritual presence. There is also a daughter named Denver who was delivered by a white woman upon her escape. Jonathan Demme is a suitable director after having made The Silence of the Lambs, also about a scarred past. Oprah Winfrey delivers a powerful performance full of fear, dread and hopelessness. Danny Glover plays her visitor reduced to conviction. He gets her pregnant again and offers to keep her but eventually he will discover her grim past. Kimberly Elise plays Denver, a survivor and perhaps the strongest. Thandie Newton is amazing with her awkward reflexes but the character Beloved is a spiritual wreck. She's a reincarnation yet demonic and completely unreadable. Hill Harper plays Winfrey's husband. Compelling story of gloom with muddled supernatural elements. Score: 6 ½ / 10

Toni Morrison story about a former servant in post-Civil War Ohio, working as a cook and living with her troubled teenage daughter (in a house touched by a spirit from the past), is visited by a man she once knew eighteen years ago as a troubled girl from Kentucky; they forge a loving friendship built upon their memories, but the horrors of their youth sneak back into the yard once a wild child named Beloved shows up and is taken in. Fill-in-the-blanks melodrama moves along fluidly, yet intrinsically keeps tripping itself up. Director Jonathan Demme wants the overstuffed tale to unfold slowly, but by explaining so little about the central characters he risks alienating viewers. Within the first ten minutes, Demme employs a technical effect which looks (and plays) cheap, followed by an outpouring of sorrowful family anger which gets the first act off on the wrong foot. The narrative is, in fact, so fuzzy that we're not sure who Oprah Winfrey's character is, how she makes her living, or what her relationship is with her daughter (who appears disturbed). When the stranger Beloved is readily welcomed by Winfrey into the home, talking in a staccato sing-song, we're not told why. Demme seems to think the mood music and the haunted/loving expression on Winfrey's face will tell us what we need to know, but this backfires (the film is practically intent on shutting out logic, replacing it with soul-bearing emotion). Perhaps in an attempt to retain Morrison's prose, the screenwriters don't allow these people to have normal conversations (it's all steeped in the hypothetical). "Beloved" has an interesting pictorial look, although the cinematography by Tak Fujimoto is too clear and pristine (as was "The Color Purple", for example), and the tidy yards and weathered rooms look too Hollywood. Demme darts about avoiding explanations, while Thandie Newton's Beloved skitters about like a banshee. Winfrey, who also co-produced the movie, gives an uneven performance hindered by the dialogue; her lack of sparkle reminds us she can be a gravely intelligent presence, but her solemn looks of longing don't register anything intriguing (we're supposed to be drawn to this woman because of Winfrey's personality, I assume, yet with Oprah so subdued we're left with nothing but a skin-deep portrait). It's a large-scale failure, a misbegotten venture, with eyes rimmed with tears, mouths torn by grief, hands grasping and clutching. It whips up quite a tempest, yet it is mostly hot air. ** from ****

I have seen this film four times, and it gets better with age. Basically, it gives you an idea of what every black family went through after slavery in the U.S.: some of their relatives were dead, some were missing, and those who survived were tormented by memories of the past. The story is loosely based on the true story of a slave named Margaret Garner, and it covers several people whose lives had been intertwined on a plantation.When you see this film, be prepared to get an idea of what slavery was really like--no "Gone with the Wind" pap about loyal mammies and lovable southern belles here. It was brutal, and the film doesn't shy away from it. This is what makes this film so great: it shows how slavery dehumanized both the slaves and the slave owners, and wrecked families afterward.Most of the complaints I've heard or read about the film are (when you strip away the quibbling) because people freaked out when they saw how graphically slavery was portrayed. What did they expect?? Bottom line: The images of slavery ARE disturbing, and also completely realistic. Jonathan Demme was right not to downplay it.Danny Glover and Kimberly Elise are great, and Beah Richards (as Baby Suggs, the preacher) is incredible. I also like that they used some historic landmarks like the old Pennsylvania Turnpike (a dirt road from the 1800s, portions of which still exist) for the large road that appears in several scenes. They also used some structures from a historic nineteenth-century village, again to give it a feeling of authenticity.