Review: Beloved (1998)

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Beloved

Rating

Director

Jonathan Demme

Screenplay

Akosua Busia, Richard LaGravenese, Adam Brooks (Novel: Toni Morrison)

Length

2h 52m

Starring

Oprah Winfrey, Beah Richards, Danny Glover, Kimberly Elise, Jude Ciccolella, Kessia Kordelle, Dashiell Eaves, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Brian Hooks, Thandi Newton, Wes Bentley, Hill Harper, Irma P. Hall

MPAA Rating

Basic Plot

An ex-slave takes care of her family the best way she knows how after risking great personal tragedy and losing the life of one of her daughters.

Review

Should we replace those we’ve loved and lost or never love again?

Sethe (Oprah Winfrey) is a former slave who escaped several years earlier to a life where she thought she could be exempt from the bonds of life. ‘Beloved’ is the story of her inner and outer journey to reclaim civility in her life and make due as best she can.

The film opens on a rather vivid and intense sequence. A dog is thrown about the room by some unknown force and the house shudders and creaks. While Sethe aids the injured dog, the possessed house seems to ache with sorrow. Sethe’s two sons rush to pack up and leave the house before they are driven mad by this unseen spectral force.

Eight years later, a man walks by the house while Sethe returns with a bucket of water. He stops by because he recognizes Sethe and she soon recognizes him as Paul D. (Danny Glover), a fellow townsperson in her slave days.

He requests to spend some time with Sethe who reluctantly agrees. He enters the house for the first time to a disturbed vision. Encased in red light, he walks cautiously through the hallway into the kitchen, barraged by images and sensations brought about by the phantasmal force.

Not long after, the force seems to disappear. One day, after returning from a carnival, they see a mysterious figure laying against a stump in the front yard. It is a young woman who cannot speak very well and seems to be disturbed. In a hoarse voice, she spells out her name, “Beloved.”

Sethe takes Beloved (Thandie Newton) in and her daughter, Denver (Kimberly Elise), attempts to befriend her. Paul D., however, wants nothing to do with her and finds her VERY suspicious.

Throughout the film, we see flashbacks of the horrid existence Sethe had as a slave and eventually discover what happened to her first daughter.

Oprah Winfrey gives a tour-de-force performance that overshadows any realization that she is anyone other than Sethe. Winfrey is Sethe in a way few others could accomplish. We easily forget who she is in real life when she’s up on the screen.

Thandie Newton is also stunning as the daughter Beloved. She plays the part with a creepiness that yields fear and compassion almost simultaneously.

Kimberly Elise is the superior performer of the film and brings humility and understanding to a character whose sympathy is an integral part of understanding her. We are easily catapulted into her emotional devastation and her immense joy.

Beah Richards is a powerfully spiritual woman who thrusts great trust, love and civility into her role.

The only performance that doesn’t feel appropriate or necessary is that of Danny Glover as the long-lost friend who becomes Sethe’s lover. He seems quite lost for the majority of the film and doesn’t appear as interesting as he would need to be to challenge the performances of the women in the film.

Overall, the production is flawless. There is one scene that I felt was forced, but doesn’t detract terribly from the rest of the film. The production design and costuming is great and the sound is surprisingly necessary and well done.

The visual realism and raw power cascades from scene to scene with ferocity and leaves the viewer riveted at its frankness.

“Beloved” is easily one of the year’s best films. An emotionally intense motion picture.