Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Middle of Nowhere

Sometimes a star-making turn features in a film of limited potential with contrived situations and minimalistic approaches. Such is Middle of Nowhere a somewhat lethargic look at a faithful wife living her life in anticipation of her husband’s release from prison.

The star of the film, Emayatzy Corinealdi, is a terrific find as the loving wife. Her commanding presence keeps the film moving forward even when it is threatened by its own pace. As Ruby (Corinealdi) visits her recently-imprisoned husband Derek (Omari Hardwick) in jail, it’s revealed that she’s given up her career to take care of his emotional well-being for the eight years he’ll be incarcerated. She plans to visit him weekly even though it means she will have to sacrifice med school to be with him. Corinealdi keeps our attention whenever she’s on screen. Her character’s love, frustration and disillusionment is on stark display for an audience who cares more for her success, concerned little for those around her.

With few big screen credits to her name, Corinealdi stuns us with her guileless charm. She transforms the rough material she’s given into a captivating examination of the lengths to which love can be stretched before breaking. Hardwick is a gruff non-entity in her presence, simply acting as a lightning rod for the audience’s ire, his selfishness preventing our heroine from becoming the woman she deserves to be. When she’s with the more loving and compassionate Brian (David Oyelowo), we see her struggle with infidelity and whether her passion deserves release in spite of her sacrifices. Oyelowo does a fine job in his brief role as does seasons character actress Lorraine Toussaint who ignites the screen each time she’s on it. Sharon Lawrence, who received three Emmy nominations for NYPD Blue, makes us question where the talent disappeared. Her lawyer is superficially adequate in a role that gets no development from the screenplay and no embellishment from the actress.