Nonureva Really Surprised!

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

annamariecolon Wow this was a movie was completely captivating I could not believe that I started awake so late to watch it but it came on late ounce I started watching I couldn't stop it had a full range of very good cast members wow even Eartha Kitt and Ruby Dee Forrest Whittaker and James Earl Jones and many more well known actors and actresses this was more than a glimpse into history it was eye opening into another part of society that people don't know of and may even be embarrassed to talk about . I've never heard of a book or movie about this before and this is something that black history never addresses only looks down on because they were privleged and mixed race , I highly recommend this movie

hahajohnson The plot of this movie- the practice of plessage and its effects on generations of black and mixed-race families- is interesting and revealing. The problem is that the acting and directing seemed amateurish at times. Robert Ri'chard (Marcel) was cute but so over-the-top it was distracting. I don't know much about him as an actor but maybe he was just inexperienced at the time of this movie. Why was he blond, by the way? Yes, his father was white but we're not all blond. He had more pronounced African features than his light-skinned mother (Gloria Reuben) but his hair was platinum blond. ??? Did they feel they had to make him blond to prove that his father was white? His childhood love Annabella was supposedly the daughter of a freed slave and not a product of plessage, but she was just as light-skinned as the characters with a white parent. What- they couldn't find a dark-skinned actress to play the part? I find that hard to believe. The only dark-skinned actors in this movie were peripheral characters. I'm white and even I was insulted.These actors were all absolutely gorgeous, but I didn't get the sense that they were all cast for their acting ability. Jennifer Beals was great as was Gloria Reuben. The young women who played Marie, Annabella and Lissette were good, and so was the (cute) guy who played Richard. (I think it was Daniel Sunjata.) I always like James Earl Jones. The rest just weren't that great. Just like other Anne Rice movies this story could've been better told with better casting.

ablu272 The story and the show were good, but it was really depressing and I hate depressing movies. Ri'Chard is great. He really put on a top notch performance, and the girl who played his sister was really awesome and gorgeous. Seriously, I thought she was Carmen Electra until I saw the IMDb profile. I can't say anything bad about Peter Galleghar. He's one of my favorite actors. I love Anne Rice. I'm currently reading the Vampire Chronicles, but I'm glad I saw the movie before reading the book. This is a little too"real" for me. I prefer Lestat and Louis's witty little tiffs to the struggles of slaves. Eartha Kitt was so creepy and after her character did what she did The movie was ruined for me; I could barely stand to watch the rest of the show. (sorry for the ambiguity, but I don't want to give anything away) Sorry, but it's just not my type of show.

ladonnanichole Historical drama and coming of age story involving free people of color in pre civil war New Orleans. Starts off slow but picks up steam once you have learned about the main characters and the real action can begin. This is not just a story about the exploitation of black women, because these were free people. They may not have had all the rights of whites but they certainly had more control over their destinies than their slave ancestors. The young men and women in this story must each make their own choice about how to live their lives, whether to give into the depravity of the system or live with optimism and contribute to their community. I enjoyed all of the characters but my favorites were Christophe, Anna Bella, and Marcel.