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Sorry, this movie sucks

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This was a good film - well acted, good cinematography, overall decent production values. Loretta Devine (sp?) as usual did an excellent job with the material..her voice and presence are so distinct she stands out in any film that she does. The direction was also solid and I enjoyed it. The storyline with the bisexual father was also something different so points to the director for originality. However, I thought the sister of Loretta's character (she's also a well known actress) was a bit over the top...and I'm sure the director wanted that but he should have massaged her performance a bit. A good film indeed. This film was a good effort.

I agree Loretta Devine is a joy to watch. Even with the sub-par dialog she's given, she works wonders.The plot is shopworn, but I wouldn't care if it were done cleverly. It isn't, but what really torpedoes this movie is the lackluster dialog, especially as the main character is supposed to represent a writer. I'm not speaking of those colorful explosions of verbosity that occasionally punch through--I'm speaking of all the exposition. All that dialog about who is where and why and how. It's as dull as donuts. The writer missed a lot of potential fun with words, I think.I also think this film suffers from poor editing. There is a lot of slow cutting, probably for anticipated laughs, but the situations rarely generate the laughs to fill up the time. Not from me, anyway. Truly, I think cutting 15 or 20 minutes out of this film would help it a lot.The performances are generally good, though I thought combining over-the-top caricatures with low-key realism made for a confusing mix. Pick a style and stick to it.

I got the chance to see a rough cut of writer/director/actor Malcolm Jamal's film at the Castro Theatre during the 2006 San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. As an openly gay black man, he lends a particularly unique and contemporary perspective on the Prodigal Son parable with this tale of a class-conscious New York-based magazine writer whose discovery of a ten-year old son leads him back to the family he left behind years ago in his hometown of Paris, Georgia. Those who have seen Cameron Crowe's "Elizabethtown" or Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy" will recognize the fish-out-of-water comedy that dominates the first half of the movie. However, the movie gradually congeals into a more resonant drama of acceptance and forgiveness without foregoing the humor.Despite his bare-bones production budget and a sometimes too facile approach to easy laughs, Jamal has a keen eye for his Deep South setting and especially his characters that manage to sidestep stereotypical treatment. What I particularly like about the family interactions is how Jamal chooses to emphasize the son's elitism that has alienated the family, not as much his sexual orientation. Rockmond Dunbar brings a sympathetic core to the uptight son, Patrick in his current life but Sheldon to his family. However, it's Loretta Devine who shines as his mother Evelyn, a hardened, alcoholic washerwoman who holds her own secrets and rails against her son with fervor. She seizes a great movie moment as she delivers a near-soliloquy at the dinner table near the end. With her foghorn, female-impersonator delivery, veteran scene-stealer Jenifer Lewis plays judgmental Aunt Lettuce with her usual gusto and provides the film's biggest laughs.Most of the cast is terrific - Terri J. Vaughn's supportive sister Jackie, Filipino comedian Alec Mapa as the overzealous metrosexual friend, Sommore's throaty turn as the sassy daughter-in-law, and Jamal's own performance as Sheldon's straight, dim-bulb brother who runs the local butcher shop. The one major fly in the ointment is Joey Costello who comes across far too flighty and naïve as Patrick's partner Ryan. The film has a too-pat though forgivable ending. In a concluding Q&A, Jamal said he just filmed the production in April and is touring this movie in select major cities in special showings through the summer. He hopes for a Christmas release at which point I say check it out. Jamal is a most idiosyncratic comedy talent.

I managed to catch this film recently and you know what I'm rather glad I did. It's a great little comedy with some cracking one-liners and a fair few laugh out loud moments. For the life of me I can't understand the low marks its got.The story of an African American guy called Patrick who after a 10 years living in the City gets called back to the small Southern town where he grew up. Welcomed back into to his family, little do they know that he's Gay and little does he know of what he left behind in his home town all those years a go.It features a great scene chewing comedic performance from one of my favourite actresses Jenifer Lewis as Patrick's snobby aunt Lettuce. As well as that look out for Loretta Devine as his mother who is her usually good self. The film fizzes with one-liners for example. "You can't make a Soufflé with Powdered Eggs". Said from one woman to another who's having trouble having children.The film owes a lot to the work of Tyler Perry to my mind and if you like his Medea Films you'll love this. Well worth a look if its at a cinema near you.