WOMAN, THOU ART LOOSED
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Magnolia Pictures
Grade: B+
Directed by: Michael Schultz
Written by: Stan Foster, novel by T.D. Jakes
Cast: Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, T.D. Jakes, Debbi Morgan,
Michael Boatman, Clifton Powell, Idalis DeLeon, Sean
Blakemore, Ricky Harris
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/21/04
The United States has a bulging prison population of some
two million unfortunate souls. Some are in jail (senselessly,
methinks) because of our absurdly strict policy on drug
possession, others for theft, still more for crimes of violence. As
for what makes a person a criminal aside from opportunity,
criminologists are only somewhat divided while far more
disagreements reign on what to do about the problem. Without
much doubt, however, we can say that being abused as a
minor–molested, raped, beaten–is no small factor in turning a
person into a life of crime.
While childhood abuse cuts across racial and class lines,
there can be little doubt that both victims and perps are primarily
from lower socioeconomic classes, the latter acting out of
frustration, mere opportunity, or who-knows-what. Bishop
T.D.Jakes, a gifted preacher, writer and performer, wrote a
novel describing the problem in which his characters are
composites, thus giving a work of fiction an engrossing and
encompassing look at the entire issue of child abuse, revenge,
and redemption. The novel has been adapted into a screenplay
by Stan Foster, and directed by Michael Schultz who, in three
spots utilize an effective device, well-known on the legitimate
stage, of having three characters come forward as individuals
under closeup, explaining to the audience what has been going
on in their minds.
Kimberly Elise ("The Manchurian Candidate," "John Q")
delivers an emotional, credible performance as Michelle who, at
the age of eight received a premonition of evil to come. Her
mother's boyfriend, Reggie (Clifton Powell) lasciviously got her
alone and told her that one day soon she will fill out and become
a real woman. When Michelle reaches the age of twelve, she is
raped by the man, though her mother, Cassie (Loretta Devine),
perhaps knowing deep down that her daughter is telling the truth
about the incident, refuses to believe that the girl's bloody dress
is anything more than the beginning of her periods.
Director Schultz tells the story in a zigzagging narrative,
delivering bits and pieces of the life of Michelle and those about
her, frequently cutting to a scene of an actual revival meeting
conducted by the novelist, the charismatic bishop T.D. Jakes,
who preaches before an large, S.R.O. house. Without actually
showing details, Schultz lets us realize that Michelle has turned
her early life into drugs and prostitution and is severely beaten
by her pusher and pimp, Pervis (Sean Blakemore) while morally
supported by her neighbor, Twana (Debbi Morgan) and nice-guy
Todd (Michael Boatman) who courts her with only limited
success. Despite her (probably) limited education, Elise's
Michelle comes across as articulate, cutting, sometimes tender,
in a performance that helped win the movie the American Spirit
Award at the Santa Barbara Festival. To his credit, Schultz, and
presumably Jakes in his novel, presents Clifton Powell's Reggie
as a complex man who for the most part has been faithful for
twenty years to his woman and who despite years of lies
attempts to find redemption in Jakes's revival meetings.
"Woman, Thou Art Loosed" is hard-hitting, entertaining, and
without casting aspersion on its value to a paying adult
audience at the multiplex could serve as a part of a high-school
health education curriculum.
Rated R. 99 minutes © Harvey Karten
at harveycritic@cs.com
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