The Reason why this movie failed.....

Novel to film: an almost impossible journey. Mostly it fails, but in recent years, we've seen many novels turned into remarkable films. Sadly, this one didn't because it failed to stay true to what the story was about. It was about Lily. Everyone else was incidental to her journey.

But when a movie studio decides to cast in a film 4 notable black talents who have reached certain professional heights, there's no way these women are going to be incidental characters in a movie. The end result is that Lily's story became diluted and as such we lost the real poignancy of her journey during which she discovered a connection to her late mother while in the company of a group of African American women who offered her sanctuary when she needed it most and most of all, female nurturing.

This project would have been better served with an unknown cast. Or at the very least, Dakota surrounded by a cast of black women without the stature of these women. How can you ask, Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson, Academy Award nominees Queen Latifah and Sophie Oknendo, the very formidable and mega talented and successful Alicia Keyes to be in a movie where their star power is not highlighted?

The book was not complex. But it's beauty was in the moment of discovery when Lily learns that her mother did in fact love her and was returning home to get her as well as her worldly possessions. Lily's story is that of a girl racked with guilt at the accidental shooting of her mother, trapped with her abusive father who has lied to her as she is coming of age.

The novel captured the Universal story of children coping with abandonment from either parent. When the story opens, Lily is at the doorstep of adolescence and having intense longing for the presence of her mother. The movie totally fails to show this: a young girl's intense longing for female guidance in ordinary things like buying a bra, how to deal with boys. The movie glosses over these in favor of the racism theme. This was important only in relation to the closeness Lily felt for Rosaleen, who was a surrogate for her maternal needs. The movie never really establishes their relationship which was more something Lily needed while Rosaleen was a black woman experiencing the jubilation of the Civil Rights Movement. As such the movie misses a very important emotional dynamic. Especially from Lily's perspective as a needy 'orphan.'

It also misses how both Lily and Rosaleen are accepted into the Boatright home as individuals: Lily as a young white girl and Rosaleen as a black woman. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, there is a moment of friction in the book where Rosaleen moves into the house leaving Lily feeling isolated. Apparently, the film didn't know how to capture such a nuance.

The movie would have been better served by a different script and cast. Actors who were actually actors and not stars and focusing more on Lily and her journey. Nothing against any of the actors in the movie, but they were simply too big for the story.