Eve's Bayou (1997)

Simply A Masterpiece

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

"Eve's Bayou" is riveting and captivating, leaving the audience engaged at every turn and begging for more of these characters by the end. In an almost dream-like Louisiana setting, Eve's Bayou provides an cinematic orgasm of eyes and mind. We are taken on a journey by a young Eve (Jurnee Smollett) and we get to see the summer in her life when tragedy dismantled her innocence and essentially revealed devastating secrets about her beloved father. The story is filled with secrets, lies, truths, love, and a complicated sibling rivalry. Eve's relationship with sister Cicly( Megan Good) is typical for girls. Both share a deep love for their father(Samuel L. Jackson) and compete for his affection. Cicly is the average teenaged girl who is struggling with becoming a woman while fighting to keep her family together and her father happy. While she adores her father, she begrudges her mother, Roz(Lynn Whitfield), showing us the electra complex at its best. The beautiful Roz is struggling with her failed marriage and disobedient children and becomes nervous from all the stress.While this movie is packed with an all star cast (Lynn Whitfield, Jurnee Smollet, Samuel L. Jackson, Lisa Nicole Carson, Megan Good,and Diahann Carroll) the star of this film is definitely Debbi Morgan. Her portrayal as the psychic counselor/black widow sister of Louis (Samuel L. Jackson) is her best role yet. Her performance in this film rivals that of great black actresses like Angela Bassett, Whoopi Goldberg, and Halle Barry. She really becomes Mozelle Batiste and we totally forget that she is a staple of cheesy daytime soap operas playing Angela Baxter of the famous black super-couple Angie and Jesse of All My Children. The scene when she describes the killing of her husband by a lover is amazing. I have watched it over and over again and I plan to watch many more times because she really is capable of fully pulling you in. The chemistry between Debbi and Jurnee is amazing and they make for a amazing duo on screen. They are such similar characters and its a shame that both were cheated out of Oscar nominations for this masterpiece. Debbi Morgan became my favorite actress the day I saw this film and I also look forward to seeing more from Kasi Lemmons. This is the best movie that I have seen in years (maybe ever) and is deserves to be on any list of the top films.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

This review has spoilers in it. I gave this film 6/10 because the script was not bad but there were some scenes in the film that I hated. I think the character of Eve was somewhat likable but the director and screenwriter made her obnoxious in the scene where Eve tells her sister that "she has blood in her pants" which refers to Cisely getting her period. Another scene that made Eve annoying is when she curses at her mother. Granted, the mother in the film is annoying, I think Eve saying "God d**nit" was too awful for a child to be saying on film. What irked me about the film was the ending. The father was lied on by Cisely and she accused him (falsely) of trying to kiss her and make a sexual advance. The mother becomes upset and Eve talks to a "witch" who lives in the bayous to put a spell on her father and have him killed. In the end, Eve finds the truth when she reads a letter written by the father to the mother. What happens? Eve destroys the letter and her father never loses the false stigma of being incestuous. The writer should have given the father some sort of justice. Other aspects of the film that were good are the cinematography and the acting by the entire cast.

The story is set in 1962 Louisiana. The Batiste family is headed by charming doctor Louis (Sam Jackson). Though he is married to beautiful Roz, he has a weakness for attractive female patients. One night Louis trysts with married and sexy Metty Mereaux, not knowing that he is observed by his youngest daughter Eve, who is there by accident.The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews, with Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert naming it the best film of 1997. Despite the praise, it seems to have been largely forgotten, and did not merit a single Oscar nomination that year. Going in to the picture today (2016), I had never heard of it, nor did I have a clue what it was about.The best part of this movie is that you can never be sure how much is real. Because most of it is told through the eyes of a 10-year old, some things may be misunderstood or distorted. A second viewing might be helpful.

Kasi Lemmons' ''Eve's Bayou'' is a film that perplexes its viewers, even those who admire it, because it challenges the ways we attempt to respond to it. Is it a portrait of desperate human sadness? Then why are we so consumed? Is it a tragedy? Then why its tenderness with these lonely people? Is it about depravity? Yes, but why does it make us suspect, uneasily, that the depraved are only seeking what we all seek, but with a lack of ordinary moral vision? In a film that looks into the abyss of human despair, there is the horrifying suggestion that these characters may not be exceptions, but may in fact be part of the mainstream of humanity.Why see the film? ''Eve's Bayou'' is about its unhappy characters, in a way that helps us see them a little more clearly, to feel sorry for them, and at the same time to see how closely tragedy and farce come together in the messiness of life. Does ''Eve's Bayou'' exploit its controversial subjects (infidelity and incest)? Finally, no: It sees them as symptoms of desperation and sadness. These are the kinds of thoughts the film inspires. It is not a film for most people. It is certainly for mature film seekers only. But it shows Lemmons as a filmmaker who deserves attention, who hears the unhappiness in the air and seeks its sources.