More than anything, Demme places a high attention into atmosphere and limp, disjointed storytelling which often borders on abstractionist, and frequently dulls things down, due to there being only so much biting material for the thoughtful storytelling to soak up throughout the final product's three-hour course.
The script and Jonathan Demme's direction place a great deal of attention into somewhat graphic, if not disturbing happenings and imagery which is respectable in its audacity, but all too often too gratuitous for the good of subtlety to tone, which might be able to compensate if it wasn't so chilled so often. The film alternates between being a study on former slaves seeking new life with the horrors of the past at their backs, and being a supernatural horror-melodrama, and although both themes are thoroughly intriguing, the overambitious and overwrought exploration of them both leads to tonal inconsistencies, some of which are glaring in their seeing storytelling jar between dramatic steadiness and horrific intensity, both of which keep consistent in being backed by some lapses in subtlety. Although developmental shortcomings that leave many of the chapters in this narrative to jar stand as a big issue, bloating is as big a problem as any, getting so carried away with flashback segments, each characters' personal struggles, and other plot aspects that it can't seem to get a consistent grip on focus any more easily than it can on the themes of this drama. If this effort's runtime seems to be rather questionable for subject matter of this type, that's because it, at just shy of three hours, is, and yet, at the same time, it's not long enough, as there are some distinct lapses in expository depth that Akosua Busia's, Richard LaGravenese's and Adam Brooks' script neglects to compensate for all of its bloating of repetitious filler, if not overwrought material. I'd say that this is a pretty satisfying sequel to apparently everything that came out between the mid-'80s and the mid-'90s, although it would be more so if it was tighter, in a number of ways. Man, that would be one seriously lame twist for this film to come to after a whopping three hours of well, being pretty good. No, this is actually the crossover between "The Color Purple" and "Ghost", because now that Whoopi Goldberg has been adequately harassed, it's time for Patrick Swayze to take out the rest of the cast of. I joke, but this is pretty much a passion project for Steven Spielberg, even though Spielberg wasn't even involved in this project, because it's pretty much the crossover between "The Color Purple" and "Poltergeist" that, come on, was totally expected, you know. Seriously though, Winfrey and Danny Glover are together again in what is basically the spin-off to "The Color Purple" that we've all been waiting for, as we wanted more Winfrey, and, you know, felt that "The Color Purple" just wasn't long enough. Actually, maybe the people in this film aren't too crazy for believing in ghosts, as Oprah Winfrey has, in real life, certainly been possessed with the most evil of demons. After something of a lengthy hiatus, Jonathan Demme made a booming comeback in 1998 by paying homage to both of his dramatic claims to fame, by simultaneously dealing with prejudice and illness like he did in "Philadelphia", and with mental insanity like he did in "The Silence of the Lambs".
0 kommentar(er)
