Ghost story, love story, long story, cold story, Beloved plods along at a lugubrious pace. Directed by Jonathan Demme and photographed by Tak Fujimoto, it's a very good looking film, but it's rather too arty in style for my ghost sensibilities.
I enjoy good, clean storytelling, and there's a story inBeloved, but I felt there were huge gaps chopped out of the lives of these characters which made Beloveddifficult for me to embrace. Beloved is Sethe's story, an abused slave who runs away from her Kentucky plantation to neighboring Ohio. Many years after her dramatic flight, Paul D., a friend from that former life, arrives at the Ohio farmhouse to rekindle Sethe's links to Sweet Water, the plantation that continues to haunt her. Sethe embraces Paul D. with great love while her daughter Denver is initially suspicious. But Paul D.'s arrival unlocks more than just memories and Sethe must once again find a way to survive.
Oprah Winfrey as Sethe with Thandie Newton as Beloved. ©Touchstone
I do admire the performances. Oprah Winfrey's Sethe provides a grand center for the film. She's the strong black woman who against all odds somehow holds it together. Winfrey remains dignified in almost every circumstance. Playing her daughter Denver, Kimberley Elise crafts an interesting reflection of her mother, though I thought some of her early gloomy continence was overdone. Danny Glover does lots of smiling and brings an easy breezy style to Beloved, yet lacks the complexity that might bring to life the history of this character. But by far the most controversial and difficult performance is from Thandie Newton playing Beloved. Was it Thandie's interpretation or the scripting or the direction of Jonathan Demme that made this character so hard to bare on the screen.
The various photographic schemes are well served on this DVD. Desaturated hues of blue that dominate the supernatural powers surrounding the Ohio farmhouse contrast with the grainy almost solarized look back at the forest scenes where grandma Baby Suggs preaches at her unusual pulpit. This is a sharp DVD with slight edge enhancement evident in high contrast transitions. Visually, Beloved is often a stunning DVD. The sound is handled to great effect. Sounds of the forest reverberate through the surround channels in this Dolby Digital 5:1 mix, but the best moment, which fills the home theater, comes when the ladies of the community bring a prayer meeting to the front of Sethe's home. Their singing fills the air with great spiritual power, clean rich voices challenging the fear and horror that confronts them.