Ed's Review Dot Com

A+E Studios, ChickFlick Productions, JuVee Productions,

Viola Davis, Jennifer Lopez, Shea Whigham, Andre Royo, Chris Chalk, Julius Tennon, Aml Ameen

Lila (Viola Davis) is a bright hardworking single Mom living in the inner city where she’s working hard to raise her children to do right and have good moral values. Her oldest son is shot and killed in a drive by shooting that sends Lila into a tailspin causing her to go into a very deep dark place. She worked for the city, but is on an extended leave due to the tragedy. She’s attending a support group of Mothers who have lost children, and meeting an interesting but bitter woman Eve (Jennifer Lopez) who has lost a child as well. The two form a friendship to try to determine who is responsible for the death of their children since the police are not making any headway. The form a tight bond and become partners in search and retribution.

This is actually a “small” movie that stirred my interest when it went into the theaters but wasn’t a big enough splash to make me run out to see it first run. Now that it’s on DVD I was anxious to see this film and see what it is all about. For the Eve character, Jennifer plays a very angry woman who is goading Lila to take action due to the lack of response from the authorities, whereas Lila, who cannot bring herself to tell the group that she really wants revenge for the death of her son, is much more grounded and unwilling to go too far other than to find out what happened. This brings a great conflict between the two characters who are very close, but like the little devil on one shoulder and the little angel on the other shoulder depicted in our childhood cartoons, Eve takes the devil’s side and Lila takes the angel side. It’s a struggle to see who will win out. That portion of it is quite interesting, thought provoking, as well as entertaining to watch. With Jennifer Lopez who does a really great job here, and Viola Davis who is another very good actress, we have all the talent we need for the emotional roller-coaster here. The story is very well written, and there is a surprise twist near the end to what really happened and how different characters were involved that I did not see coming and caught me blindsided, but in retrospect I should have seen it coming. It was a well filmed, well acted, well written, and well edited film that is still a small detective piece with a lot of really good quality at a meager budget. If you are fan of action/suspense thrillers, then I recommend this film as one that you probably, like me, passed over in theaters, and I suggest you watch this one for a good evening of intense suspense.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Regency Enterprises, River Road Entertainment, Plan B Entertainment,

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard, Garret Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Adepero Oduye, Michael K. Williams, Chris Chalk, Taran Killam, Bill Camp

The true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who was a free black man living in New York State. Solomon was an accomplished musician and was tricked into a job where he was captured and sold as a slave. He was subjected to both incredible kindness and extreme cruelty as were those around him before he meets a Canadian abolitionist, Bass (Brad Pitt) who changes his life forever.

The movie is based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup himself and is set in the pre-Civil War days. Events like that happened from time to time, and certainly no one can tolerate the depiction of the brutality of slavery. Not to make light of it, but since the slaves were valuable property, the extreme damage they did in this movie would surely depreciate the value of their property. I doubt that most slave owners would treat their “tools” like this. IF they did, they were really stupid. But at the same time, the times were horrible and treating human beings as property is disgusting. Still, I feel the filmmakers went out of their way to lay a guilt trip on us, and that is the most uncomfortable thing about watching this film. It’s hard not to feel pretty bad about yourself while watching this. It’s a mind numbing story, and there’s now way to come out of this unscathed. Regardless of whether or not it’s historically accurate in this case, It’s still a powerful message. I felt somewhat torn, all in all, and so I don’t really know how to rate this one. It’s really well done, and yet, I was torn as to whether I really was impressed that much. I chose 4 stars for the really good acting and for the screen play. It is a real depiction of life in the South pre-Civil War. But I was not completely blown away with the story. I can’t really put my finger on it. It just left me unsettled, which is what I guess it was supposed to do.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog