viewed at Sedona Film Festival -- seemed a little choppy

Saw this film on Feb. 28, 2009, at the Sedona AZ Film Festival. It contained a lot of informative moments but not very many dramatic moments; the pace was incredibly lethargic, and it seemed like at least two subplots wound up being edited to nothing in the interest of time. The main plot was, as others have said, predictable. I was perplexed that so little was done to reflect the relationship between father (Jackson) and son (Glover) to make Glover the way he was. Angela Bassett gave a stronger performance than Glover, as a person concerned about preserving history and respecting ancestors, but again, editing made her performance uneven and unresolved.

After the showing, director Esposito spoke about the making of the film. He explained that he was trying to capture the "energy of the South," which he explained was a much slower energy than most other places he had been. He also explained that he wanted to work with several big-name actors, hence the reason that Jackson, Glover and Bassett are in the film.

It sounded like he was trying to make a period piece about the 1960s and that by setting it in the 2000s he could suggest that many of the issues of the 1960s -- issues of power, money, racial tension, authority, cooperation, fairness -- remain unresolved. Unfortunately, the slow pace of the movie did not allow him time to develop some of the subplots that would have reinforced that idea of lack of resolution. Overall, the characters don't evoke an emotional connection from the viewer and the predictable plot makes the movie flat. The film may be a good history lesson but it's a long one that doesn't add much to the existing conversation about racial tension in the South.