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Summary: powerful film
Review: Kasi Lemmons does a wonderful job with this film.it has so many things going on and yet is able to pull all of them together.Samuel L.Jackson throwns down in this film.Lynn Whitfield is solid as always.a powerful film and a must see.real life Drama.
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Summary: Fantastic Debut by Writer/Director Kasi Lemmons
Review: Long before this film was made, the buzz was tremendous. Everybody I knew that had read the screenplay raved about it. Later, I had the opportunity to see "Dr. Hugo," which was essentially an abbreviated version of the film that was used to convince the distributor that she could direct the film. Her husband Vondie Curtis Hall (of the series "Chicago Hope"), played the title character in the short film. "Dr. Hugo" was fantastic.When I finally saw "Eye's Bayou" I'll admit that at first I was a bit thrown off. "Dr. Hugo," had a light and breezy tone, whereas "Eye's Bayou" has a more somber tone and deals more with mysticism and dysfunctional family relationships than the short. However, once I accepted that the two films were very different, I completely embraced the film. I went on to see it on the big screen three times. "Eye's Bayou" is a lyrical film of exceptional quality. It is also special, in that it focuses on something that today is highly neglected in films -- acting. Debi Morgan as Dr. Baptiste's sister and Jurnee Smollett as the daughter were simply dynamite. I was pleasantly surprised when "Eye's Bayou" went on to become the most successful U.S. independent release of 1997. The film proves that intelligent motion pictures that are not noisy and special effects-driven can also do well at the box office. If haven't already seen it, run to the video store (or amazon.com) and check it out!!! END
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Summary: Loved this movie!
Review: Mystery, Magic, and Family what a wonderful base for a movie. I loved the setting, the characters, and the story. It left enough to the imagination to keep it believable. This movie is worth owning!
Rating:
Summary: Loved this movie!
Review: Mystery, Magic, and Family what a wonderful base for a movie. I loved the setting, the characters, and the story. It left enough to the imagination to keep it believable. This movie is worth owning!
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Summary: Eve's Bayou is for You -and all of us
Review: Once, maybe twice in a lifetime, a movie comes along that captures the black experience in a way that white folks could not even begin to fathom. Without the shuffling and attempts at assimilation, some movies are pure beauty. "Eve's Bayou" is that kind of movie. Itis only unfortunate that the flashback movies that remind us so much of our culture in the South (the lead character is a doctor that makes house calls) tend to also revolve around how callous we can be as a people. Along this same line is Denzel's "Devil in a Blue Dress," which captured the black neighborhood in a way that few movies have.
"Eve's Bayou" is a movie about family -- and infidelity. I do not want to give much away, but suffice it to say that in the South, the believe in spirituality is not limited to Christianity; there are those of us who delve into voodoo and, among some of our other people, you have Santeria and Curandismo. The belief that a curse culd be put one someone is at the root of a young girl's concern about and commitment to her famliy and, more profoundly, her doctor-father. He is a dawg. He has relationships with other women but takes care of his home. At the end he dies in a way that many black men back then died: allowing machismo to get in the way of common sense. And we're STILL dying like that.
At any rate, "Eve's Bayou" is the kind of movie that should be shown in every Black Literature, Contemporary Literature and History of the American South course that is offered at the university level. The scenery is breathtaking, the essence of black southern life flourishing despite segregation should remind brothers and sisters of the validity of the statement, "Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it." A must-see.
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Summary: One of the best films ever made.
Review: Oustanding performances, beautiful direction, and a very well told story. Unfortunately, like many other cinematic treasures dealing with blacks, Eve's Bayou would have garnered many accolades if the cast and director were white.
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Summary: The Right Stuff!
Review: Rare is the film that has all the ingredients for greatness: compelling story, stellar acting, evocative script and images that stick with you. 'Eve's Bayou' is one of those privileged few destined to last as a classic. Director Kasi Lemmons deserves the highest praise for creating such a masterpiece.
From the opening line, 'Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, some printed indeliably on the brain,' you slowly fall under the spell of filmmaking pushed to the artistic limit. 'Eve's Bayou,' is the story of the creole Baptiste family in 1960's Louisiana as seen through the innocent eyes of the youngest girl, Eve. After catching her father in the act of adultery, Eve becomes a reluctant shareholder in her father's secret life. Eve tries to share her awful burden with her sister, but as Eve learns much later, Cisely has her own secerts to hide. Eve soon becomes the gadfly of the family, taunting both mother and father with a knowledge that could destroy her whole family. Her only refuge is her Aunt Mozelle, the claivoyant sister of her father, who has her own tragic baggage to deal with. In Mozelle, Eve finds a friend and substitute mother who tries to help her come to grips with her dying family. Yet, when Eve learns another horrible 'truth' about her father, nothing can assuage her pain. Action is the only catharsis and Eve takes a fatal step she soon regrets. As her family crumbles around her, she struggles to hold onto her 'truth,' only to learn just how elusive such truth really is. The film ends just as somberly as it began. Message: we can never know the whole truth of something unless we dare to experience all sides.
'Eve's Bayou' is a seering and heart-breaking saga of one family's disintergration and of one child's grim initiation into adulthood. Lemmons subtly mixes scenes from the past with those of the present to show the truth of Faulkner's adage, 'the past is never really past.' The sensual and labyrinthine bayou backdrop mirrors the intertwined and twisted roots of passion that slowly tear the Baptiste family apart.
Not only is the film candy to watch, but Lemmon's poetic script is music to the ears as well. Aphoristic gems fall from everybody's lips, making 'Eve's Bayou' seem more like a novel unfolding before your eyes. And these gems are delivered with the grace and power that only a true actor/actress can give. Samuel Jackson gives one of his greatest performances as the womanizing doctor who needs 'to be a hero' to the ladies of the town. But it is the ladies who carry 'Eve's Bayou.' Lynn Whitefield, Debbie Morgan and Diahann Carroll all help create a 'creole' atmosphere that even Kate Chopin would be proud of. Yet, the frosting to this very tasty cake is without a doubt, Eve's Jurnee Smolett. She doesn't act her part. She IS her part, that of innocence stolen, of wisdom grown old before her time.
Anybody looking for a film that will grip you, move you and leave with the feeling of having been touched by the muses, check out this film! It's got all the right stuff!
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Summary: WHAT A GREAT MOVIE !!!
Review: Samuel L. Jackson gives an award winning performance in this movie about a Dr. who loves to take his "house calls". It is truely one of a kind, and will keep you glued to your seats until the very surprising ending. This movie is just wonderful and would recommend it to anyone.
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Summary: Jurnee Smollett was robbed!
Review: She should have won the academy award for best child actor of the year. That little girl can act. The movie is mesmerizing and completely seductive. More like classic literature than a movie. Everything about it - writing, acting, cinematography - was superb.
Rating: 
Summary: A dichotomy of a film....
Review: The acting is superb, almost all the way down the line. There are some overacted/overreactive moments, but as a whole, the cast is excellent. For that matter, so is the photography and the story. The film is watchable just for that. What makes it imperfect is, it seems, a little much on the director's part to be artisitc. As a result, the film seems a touch disjointed and/or illogical in spots. IMHO, it could have been better resolved fora tighter film. Still, an excellent watch.
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