Shout Out to Chi-raq

I’ve done a lot of soul searching about whether to write a review promoting “Chi-raq.” I had some initial misgivings, but honestly, I was shocked to find out how many black people were outraged after seeing the trailer. They thought the humor was in bad taste, disrespected Chicago, and that it made light of an important issue in the black community: gang violence. After some reflection (and reading Tasha Robinson’s “Review: Chi-Raq is SpikeLee's larger-than-life love letter to Chicago”), I feel that Spike Lee showed great courage in making a movie condemning gang violence in this time of mounting racial tension.

This isn’t the first time that Spike Lee has put himself in the line of fire for his controversial beliefs. “Do the Right Thing” (now heralded as a must-see classic) came out at a time when racial tension was at a boiling point in New York City. In the late eighties, when I lived in Brooklyn, race riots seemed to be the norm. The movie was inspired by a racial incident where a car broke down just outside of the Howard Beach area of Queens and three black boys walked into a pizzeria to use the phone. A group of white boys, incensed that these black boys were in their neighborhood, called out racial slurs and started a row. One of the black teens was killed trying to escape into traffic. New York was in an uproar. Over 1,200 marched in a highly charged protest.  In 1989, the year the film came out, another black teen was murdered in Bensonhurst.  Racial tension was at a boiling point.  I remember feeling nervous at the Brooklyn premiere of “Do the Right Thing.” Reviewers had predicted that the movie would incite race riots - that blacks would get so riled up by the brutal climax that they would run out of the theater and burn things.  Personally, I was shaken to the core by the heart-wrenching ending.

Some felt it was irresponsible to release a film that culminates in a black riot in such a racially charged time. But Spike Lee believed that it would incite conversation and hopefully inspire change by bringing the problem out in the open. And it did. People lined up in the streets to see the film. Entrances were blocked by people (black and white) ardently debating the racial issues in the movie they had just seen.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 26 years since “Do the Right Thing.”  Unfortunately, gang violence is on the rise - spurring Spike Lee to make another movie in the spirit of “Do the Right Thing.”  But, this time he’s gunning for gang bangers in “Chi-raq.” Even the name is inflammatory. Pronounced "shy-RACK", the title is a juxtaposition of "Iraq" and "Chicago", coined by South Side Chicago residents who compare the area to a war zone because of its high crime rates.

Mister Señor Love Daddy in “Do the Right Thing"

Let's examine the complaint that Spike Lee is making light of the problems in South Chicago. If you watch the movie, it is clear that it is a highly stylized satirical remake of a Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes, in which Lysistrata convinces the wives of the Athenian and Spartan soldiers to withhold sex until their husbands agree to stop the endless war. (Teyonah Parris plays the gang leader's girlfriend Lysistrata.) Spike Lee and playwright Kevin Willmott stay true to the tone of the source with its over the top bawdy humor. (In the play, the men go around with cloths draped over their huge cod pieces.) “Chi-raq” has that Spike Lee flare, with Samuel L. Jackson (who played the DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy in “Do the Right Thing”) acting as a one man Greek chorus. The dialogue is sheer poetic genius – a combination of Shakespearean couplets, slam poetry riffing, and freestyle rap.

Director Spike Lee

This movie isn’t for everyone. Sometimes the humor is just plain over the top. He treats both whites and blacks as horny buffoons. Two of the three white characters are depicted as racist stereotypes (especially in a scene where Lysistrata uses her feminine wiles to capture the Confederate-fetishist General King Kong). The movie would have been more accessible if he had cut that offensive scene. Apparently, Spike Lee will go to ridiculous lengths to get people talking. He pushes people's buttons with purposefully derogatory rap lyrics to incite conversation among blacks. Spike Lee's intention is to WAKE people up. In fact, the first line in both “Do the Right Thing” and “Chi-raq” is, “Wake up."

“Chi-raq” is no comic trifle. There are some very moving scenes - particularly those with Jennifer Hudson as the grieving mother of a little girl shot while playing. The movie deals with important themes. “Chi-raq” is society out of balance - where the maternal side is no longer protected, but disrespected, and the worst side of man is allowed free reign.  In a spirited rap number, women seem to worship the gang leader/rap singer Chiraq (Nick Cannon) who preaches violence. “Chi-raq” is a call for black women to wake up and use their strength to stand up against the senseless violence.

What does it take to wake people up who have gotten used to daily violence - where children dying in the streets is considered normal? Spike Lee’s answer is to be LOUD, bold, outrageous, disrespectful – to incite anger. He is shouting at the top of his lungs, “WAKE UP!”

Movie blessings!
Jana Segal
www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com

Shout out to Spike Lee! Spike won a long overdue honorary Oscar. Hear his impassioned speech. 

East-side Sushi: Challenging Traditions

I love a good foody movie. Yummy!  But this festival favorite transcends the usual foody fare with its timely themes.

“East-side Sushi” shows a Mexican-American family making their own way in Oakland, California.  They don’t get any handouts (despite what the corporate media would have us believe).  The little family works hard at two jobs just to eke out a living.  Working long hours is killing the old man, but he has no choice. The company keeps lowering his pay and increasing his hours.  At 4 a.m. every morning, Juana drags her sleeping daughter (Kaya Jade Aguirra)  along as she and her father do food prep for their fruit cart.  Juana’s (Diana Elizabeth Torres) integrity is apparent as she selects the best fruit. She offers a quality product, rather than skimping by using bottled lemon juice just to make a little more profit.

What I especially love about this film is how writer/director Anthony Lucero uses Juana’s actions to drive the story.  When Juana happens on to a sushi restaurant looking for help, she impulsively applies. She has grown bored of working prep for Mexican restaurants and making the same old tacos. She is ready for a new challenge.  She is hired because she can carry a fifty pound bag of rice, but she soon proves herself with her expert knife skills.  She has never even had sushi, but she quickly adapts to the new culture.

At home, her father (Rodrigo Duarte Clark) keeps insisting that she get a normal job working at a Mexican restaurant and do what’s best for her daughter.  She reminds him that she always does what is best for the family.  She goes on, “Sometimes I think you are happy with working and never succeeding.”  Her father has been taught to stay in his place.

It is her own skill, moxie, determination, la fuerza, and talent that allow her to rise above her "place" in the restaurant world. She studies independently - learning the Japanese names of the various kinds of sushi and following sushi making tutorials online.  It is only when she can’t figure out how to make the sushi rice stick, that she asks a sympathetic sushi chef for advice.   She experiments on her unsuspecting family (who are mystified by this strange foreign food – raw fish!), making innovations that her family will enjoy.

She finally finds the strength to stand up to the discrimination at the restaurant and demand the promotion she deserves – to be hired as a sushi chef.  “I’m trying to have an opportunity like everyone else. I deserve an opportunity like everyone else. You know, behind every great restaurant there are great Latinos in the back, in the kitchen, hidden, preparing the food, making you look good.  Well, I don’t want to be in the back anymore."

She calls them on their excuse that “it is tradition” that only Japanese are sushi chefs - when two of the chefs are Chinese and Korean.  She calls them on their sexist traditions. “Sure you say women can’t be sushi chefs because their hands are too warm - that their perfume affects the taste of the food” - while one of the male chefs smells like an ash tray.

When Juana challenges racist and sexist traditions by pursuing her dream and standing up for herself, she is an inspiration to everyone around her: the Japanese hostess, the Latino prep cook, her wide-eyed daughter, her traditional father, and eventually even her boss. The result is a delicious blending of two culinary cultures at, "East-side Sushi."

Movie blessings! 

Jana Segal 

www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com

"Belle" Director Amma Asante Proves: What is Right Can Never Be Impossible

 Painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle and her sister-cousin exhibited at Scone Palace in Scotland

In 1761, Dido Elizabeth Belle was born the daughter of a British slave and Captain Sir John Lindsay.  She was raised by aristocratic grandparents with the privileges afforded one of noble blood. What makes this story so incredible is that her beloved grandfather was the justice of the appeals court that officiated an insurance dispute by the captain of the slave ship Zong  - a case that may have led to the emancipation of British slaves.

Writer/Director Amma Asante makes Dido’s story acceptable to mainstream audiences by dressing it up as a lavish historical costume drama, embroidered with romance, its delicate fabric interwoven with threads of relevant themes.

When Belle’s sister-cousin comes out in society, her grandparents entertain suitors.  Dido (Gugu Mabatha-Raw) is prohibited from dining with the rest of the family due to her position in society as a black woman. For the first time, Belle questions her position in society. She asks her Papa (Tom Wilkinson), “How can I be too high in rank to dine with the servants, but too low to dine with my family?”  He explains that it is the nature of order. There is an interesting dichotomy here.  Belle recognizes the injustice of that rule. But that very evening, she admonishes the vicar’s son John for breaking social etiquette by speaking directly to her - the lady of the house - when he is of a lower social standing.  Formed by her privileged upbringing, Belle upholds the very social hierarchy that suppresses her.

The vicar’s son John (Sam Reid) arrives to study law under her grandfather, the justice of the appeal court.  Dido overhears a case that her Papa is trying in which a slave ship captain is suing the insurance company for the cost of the slaves that he threw overboard to reserve water for himself and the crew.  This lights a fire in Dido to learn more about the injustices of her people.  Dido is inspired by the law student as he challenges their social system by standing up for the drowned slaves.

To shelter Dido, her grandfather forbids John from speaking to her. He encourages her to marry a gentleman for his family name to preserve her rank. This is another interesting dichotomy, as the judge is expected to rule on the merits of the case on the basis that the slaves are property or cargo, while he fights to maintain his beloved Dido’s place in society. Meanwhile, Dido’s sister--cousin is having difficulty securing a husband because she didn't inherited her father’s fortune. She realizes that ladies aren't allowed to work to earn money, nor can they inherit it if they have a brother. So essentially they are property. Everyone in this society is enslaved by the confines of their class.

While “Belle” is set in 18th century Britain, it shines a light on important issues of our time. There are parallels between Britain’s class system and our own. In America, class is distinguished by the distribution of wealth. There is a great divide when CEOs are paid $10,000 an hour, yet refuse to pay workers a living wage of $10. While Britain’s colonial economy relied on the slave trade, our market-based economy relies on paying slave wages. The lower class competes for poverty wages because the other jobs have been sent overseas where we exploit starving children and the destitute.  Right here in America, the people who harvest our food work brutal 13 hour days on an empty stomach. That brings up the question: Do we really have to exploit desperate people to show a profit?  Are we enslaved by a system that values profit over human life?

When I post a meme on Facebook to create awareness and inspire action, inevitably a “well-meaning” friend will leave a comment that there is nothing we can do, that it has always been that way. Their comments not only deflate the cause, but make me feel hopeless and powerless. That is one of the reasons I love the movie “Belle;” It inspires hope with its theme, “What is right can never be impossible.”  The movie (and history) proves this thesis. In the 18^th century,  Britain’s economy was based on the slave trade.  While we had to fight a war to end slavery, Britain passed a law to abolish it. And their economy didn't come crashing down.

What was the driving force? Amma Asante's thesis is that it is was love. Belle assures her grandfather that he is brave. When he argues that there are rules in place that dictate how we live, she counters with, “You break every rule when it matters enough, Papa.  I am the proof of that.”

Amma Asante was empowered by her (sur)name sake, the Ghanaian warrior queen Yaa Asantewaa, to overcome great obstacles to get, “Belle” to the screen.  This low budget costume drama became a surprise hit grossing $104,493 on opening weekend.

“Belle” is proof that, “What is right can never be impossible.” 

Movie blessings!

Jana Segal

www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com

The Long March to Freedom

The unwarranted controversy around Ava DuVernay's depiction of President Johnson in, "Selma," got me thinking about the challenge of writing a movie about historical figures. Being a writer, I know how difficult it is to write about a real person - especially someone who is as well-known and beloved as Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. The sheer scope of their life stories is daunting. What do you include and what do you leave out? How do you capture the life of a person in two hours? As an artist, you hope to capture a glimpse of their spirit. A writer attempts to create meaning out of life events. That is a tall order for men who meant so much to so many people. A friend of mine admitted that he didn't want to see, "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," because writer William Nicholson chose to include Mandela cheating on his first wife and endangering his family. Similarly, writer Paul Webb and director Ava DuVernay included this same weakness in their portrait of Martin Luther King. I believe that the writers showed great courage in sharing these great men's weaknesses. Illuminating the real men behind the legends is what makes these movies so powerful!

In both movies, their wives are portrayed as partners in the fight for civil rights. "Selma," makes it clear that Coretta enabled Martin Luther King to be the face of the civil rights movement by supporting him financially and caring for their children at home. The film concentrates on a shorter period in history to take a more personal look at Martin's and Coretta's relationship and the effect the struggles of the civil rights movement had on them. They risked their lives walking side by side at the peaceful demonstration in, "Selma" 

In, "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," Nelson’s story is contrasted with Winnie's tragic tale. While Mandela was in jail, it was his wife Winnie who led the Apartheid and Free Mandela movements. The movie captures her growing hatred as she witnesses violence towards her people and she endures torture at the hands of their white oppressors. When Mandela is finally released from prison, Winnie demands that he use his power to overthrow the white government. But the visionary Mandela finds the strength and wisdom to transcend the urge for revenge or justice. He has learned that the only way for Africa to be whole again is through cooperation and forgiveness.

What makes these movies so inspiring is that their subjects weren't perfect, but they accomplished great things. These flawed men and women sacrificed everything to bring freedom to their people.

Movie blessings! 

Jana Segal

reelinspiration.blogspot.com

OSCAR UPDATE:

"Selma," was honored with a Best Song Oscar for, "Glory," by songwriters Common and John Legend.

Celebrate Martin Luther King Day with, "Selma"

I went away from the screening feeling empowered to write an inspiring review of Best Picture Nominee, “Selma.” I was deeply moved by the image of marchers from diverse religions, black and white, standing together against injustice and inhumanity. These people risked their lives for the rights we enjoy today. And the themes are still so relevant in this time of racial discord and disillusionment with those in power. 

After a two hour bus ride home, I was struggling to remember what I was going to write. I knew I wanted to include an excerpt from Martin Luther King’s closing speech at Montgomery, so I googled it. I was shocked to find that it wasn't King's actual words. I was appalled that the African-American filmmakers (including Oprah!) couldn't get the rights to use the speeches because of copyright laws. Doesn't Martin Luther King's legacy belong to all of us? The rights had been sold to a rich white man. Steven Spielberg will probably do justice to Martin Luther King’s life as he did with, “Schindler’s List.” But the symbolism is still disheartening – a rich white man buying up intellectual property for his vision of Martin Luther King. I was so thrown that I couldn't face writing this for days. 

Then there was the unwarranted controversy around the accuracy of the film's depiction of President Lyndon Johnson as a deterrent to the march at Selma. Personally, I feel that filmmakers have a responsibility to be truthful in capturing important historical events. I listened to director Ava DuVernay‘s explanation that, "Selma," was her artistic vision. She suggested that people research it for themselves. I took up the challenge and found that President Johnson's involvement was not black and white. He was first and foremost a Southern politician. While he may have intended to pass the civil rights law, he was cautious not to lose too many voters. I believe that the movie is DuVernay's honest take on the events. Her vision is to invite the audience into the spirit of the movement from the point of view of its black protagonists. Yes, protagonists - plural. It was greater than just one man. It was a community coming together to figure out the best way to accomplish their civil rights objectives.

The movie shows how African-Americans were humiliated, threatened with losing their jobs, beaten or even killed for attempting to vote in the South. A group of civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), decide that the best course of action is to fight for the unobstructed right to vote. King meets with President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to request that he pass the Voting Rights Act. But the president’s goal is to keep a handle on the civil rights movement and he is interested in uncovering King’s next course of action. He claims that there is too much on his plate, including fighting poverty, to pass a Voting Rights Act.

The activists decide to bring attention to the issue by holding a non-violent demonstration in Selma, Alabama. As the protesters kneel down before Sheriff Jim Clark, a police officer strikes an elderly man who has difficulty kneeling. When two protesters intervene to protect the man, the police respond with a vicious attack. The protesters flee, but the policemen are unrelenting in their pursuit. One young man helps his family escape into a restaurant, where they pretend to be eating. The policemen track them down and shoot the young man in cold blood. Spurred on by this tragedy, the community rallies together. They organize a non-violent march from Selma.

Governor Wallace commissions Sheriff Jim Clark to teach them a lesson. When the peaceful marchers reach the end of a Edmund Pettus Bridge, Sheriff Jim Clark is waiting. He sics his armed state troopers on them. The nation watches, horrified, as the marchers are savagely beaten as white citizens cheer from the sidelines. Martian Luther King sends out a call to his fellow clergy to stand with him when they march again. Moved by the inhumanity, they come to show their support. It is inspiring to see black and white people from all religions joining arms and standing together.

 

The reason I wanted to include the excerpt from 

his Montgomery speech is that it still rings true today. Martin Luther King educates the nation on how after the emancipation, the Southern aristocracy was afraid of the freed slaves organizing with the poor whites for better working conditions, so they passed the Jim Crow segregation laws to separate them. The inherent message was no matter how low the white man was, the blacks were lower. (This is similar to the way our current politicians use undocumented immigrants as scapegoats, blaming them for causing the recession by taking the poor man’s jobs. Eighteen billion dollars was spent last year on immigrant enforcement. In Arizona, they passed a law that takes away our rights. Policemen can stop us on the street to ask for our papers. Of course, it is only brown-skinned people that they stop. Arizona has also disregarded the Voting Rights Act by requiring identification in order to vote.)

Witnessing the inhumane treatment of the marchers in Selma created more understanding of the plight of African Americans - which allowed President Lyndon Johnson to finally pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965. I hope that witnessing these events in, "Selma," will remind us of the difficult battle that was waged to achieve these rights, so we won’t allow them to be taken away.

Movie blessings!
Jana Segal
www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com

Fueled by Ava DuVernay's treatment, I wrote, "Incredible Invisible Women Filmmakers." Read more about it in Scott Mendelson's excellent article, "Why Ava DuVernay's "Selma" Oscar Snub Matters."


OSCAR UPDATE:

"Selma," was honored with the Best Song Oscar for, "Glory," by songwriters Common and John Legend. They made the most of the opportunity with this powerful rendition at the Oscar ceremony.

"12 Years a Slave"

Director Steve McQueen with Best Picture Oscar

Best Picture winner, “12 Years a Slave,” is based on the empowering true story of Solomon Northup, an African-American musician and freeman, who is kidnapped and sold into slavery.

There have been many movies about the plight of the slaves. But “12 Years a Slave,” by director Steve McQueen and Oscar award-winning adapter, John Ridley, transcends the others by illuminating the importance of not only surviving, but surviving with dignity. When Solomon (Chiwetu Ejiofor) is first kidnapped, he insists that he is a freeman. In an attempt to break his spirit, his captors beat him within an inch of his life. A fellow captive advises him that if he wants to survive, he must keep a low profile and not let them know he can read and write. The hopelessness of his situation finally sets in as other slaves fail gravely in their attempts to escape. He decides to cooperate, but continues exercising to keep up his strength so he is prepared when the opportunity to escape arises. But he soon observes that cooperation doesn’t save his fellow slaves from abuse. They are considered property and are whipped or killed at their master’s whim.

SPOILER AHEAD:

Solomon finally decides to risk everything to realize himself. He demonstrates his intelligence by engineering a way for logs to be carried across the river. The master is pleased and rewards him with a violin – a show of respect (and a possible way for him to earn money to buy his freedom). The white foreman becomes jealous and attacks him, but now Solomon fights back like a man. Later, the foreman returns to hang him. The master runs the foreman off, but leaves Solomon hanging from the noose barely able to hold up his weight on his tip toes. The master punishes the foreman for messing with his property, and sends a message to Solomon to stay in his place.

The film also examines the lives of the slaves who chose to please their masters. A spirited young slave, Patsey, (Best Actress winner Lupita Nyong’o) captures her master’s attention by cheerfully picking more cotton then the rest of the slaves. He watches her dancing in the slave quarters, entranced, longing to capture her jubilant spirit. When his wife protests, he insists on keeping his slave and suggests that his wife leave if she doesn’t like it. The wife finds little ways to belittle Patsey’s dignity like depriving her of soap. Believing she is entitled to special treatment as the master’s favorite, Patsey goes off to fetch some for herself. Furious at her for trying to escape, the master beats her. She pleads with him - explaining that she was just getting soap and that she has earned the right to keep herself clean. But this angers him even more. Egged on by his wife, he forces Solomon to beat her to demonstrate to both of them that he can do what he wants with his property.

Despite his captors’ best efforts to break his spirit, Solomon Northup never gives up his identity. By exhibiting his strength as a man, he plants a seed of thought – I am a man and no man’s property! By surviving with dignity, he liberates himself and others.

Movie blessings! 

Jana Segal 

www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com

"The Help"

In the prelude, Abileen stoically tells an unseen interviewer that her grandmother was a house slave and her mother was a house maid. She, herself, has raised 17 white children. A naive voice asks if she ever thought of being something else. Her answer is the blank stare of resignation passed on from generations of subservience.

The movie proper starts with recent college grad Skitter (a wide eyed Emma Stone) being interviewed for her first newspaper job. Skitter is hired to write a housekeeping and cooking column – a subject she knows nothing about. No matter. While at a bridge club meeting, she asks her friend permission to interview her maid. Ironically, the maid, Abileen, is the only one she knows who keeps house. It becomes clear that her friend sees Abigail as her property when she catches Skitter affirming Abileen's contribution to the household. She tells Skitter that Abileen will be unable to continue working on the project.

Upset by her friend's mistreatment of Abileen and the unexplained absence of the beloved maid who raised her, Skitter is inspired to write a book on the maids' perspective of working for a white family. Her editor warns that she will never be able to get any maids willing to risk their jobs or their lives to talk to her. It is dangerous. It is 1960, the dawn of the civil rights movement. Jim Crow laws make it illegal to even print civil rights material. Tensions mount as a black activist is killed. The fear is palpable as black passengers are thrown off the bus near the murder sight and Abileen flees for her life past race riots.

This movie is about the shared delusion that blacks and whites in the South were separate. In 1960s Jaskson, Mississippi, Jim Crow laws and bridge club etiquette rule their lives. The laws were designed to separate the whites from the blacks, but black women had always worked very close to white families - preparing their food, cleaning their bathrooms, and changing their babies' diapers. For generations, the black “maids” raised the white children. Skitter explains to her publisher, “We are raised by our black maids. They love us and we love them, but they can't use the same bathroom.”

The setting is the domestic world of kitchens, nurseries and bathrooms which gives ample opportunities for kitchen (and bathroom) humor. On the whole, writer/director Tate Taylar does a good job balancing comedy and drama. The 146 minutes flies by with some laughs, tears, and dramatic tension. But sometimes the comedy goes a bit over the top. Hilly starts a petition initiating a law to have separate bathrooms for the help - even though her feisty maid, Minny, is the envy of the bridge club for her great cooking. This gives new meaning to the phrase, “Don't crap where you eat.”

There are multiple storylines. Care is given in showing the intertwining lives of the blacks and the whites. The writer seems to be saying both races are enslaved by the cultural restrictions of the time. Even Skitter's mother couldn't stand up to the bigots in her social club. She admits to Skitter, "Sometimes courage skips a generation." But it's the performances of Viola Davis as Abileen and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer as Minny that holds it all together. Davis adds gravity to every scene she is in. In Abileen's carriage we see the weight of generations of suppression as well as the personal risk she is taking with her involvement in the taboo book. Minny is different. After working for segregationist bridge club president Hilly, Minny has had enough. She is a fire cracker ready to explode. These women are survivors. But they have risen above that. They have stood up to their fears. They are heroes in their own civil rights protest and free women. I can't say so much for Hilly and her bridge club.

Movie blessings!
Jana Segal
www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com

Official site: http://thehelpmovie.com/us/

"Invictus"

"Invictus," opens with the image of a road dividing the well groomed, green rugby field for the white African team and the rough, dirt lot where black African children play. Coming down the road is the motorcade of newly elected President Nelson Mandela.

This is a movie about inspiration. President Mandela's (Morgan Freeman) resolve to unite the nation without punishing his suppressors after serving twenty-seven years as a political prisoner is indeed inspiring. Through his example, he teaches his country how to forgive.

Knowing that his county is still racially divided in the wake of apartheid, the President enlists the help of the national rugby Team Captain (Matt Damon in his most buff and tan) to unite the country with the universal language of sports. Africa is hosting the Rugby World Cup Championship and he knows that the eyes of the world are on them. His first task is to inspire the team to overcome their losing streak and win the championship. But the bigger challenge is to inspire his hostile countrymen to rally around the mostly white team.

Unfortunately, the sports section of the movie isn't as moving as it could have been and therefore less inspiring. President Mandela gives the Team Captain the poem, "Invictus" for inspiration. (Mandela got strength from this poem to survive those hard years in prison.) The Team Captain surprises his players with a visit to Mandela's tiny prison cell. But an opportunity is lost when he doesn't share the poem with his team. The audience hears the poem as a voice over. (My frustration increased when I couldn't make out a few of the words.) Here it is:

INVICTUS

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Perhaps the screenwriter was trying to keep to the true story. In sports stories there is always the problem of creating suspense when we know who will win. And this definitely is a problem here. Apparently, the game was not an emotional roller coaster. Instead the writer uses the possibility of an assassination to create tension. I'm not saying there are no inspiring moments. There are several. It's just not as moving as it could have been. (I wonder if director Clint Eastwood was trying to avoid having the movie called sappy...?) It is still a three, maybe three and a half, star movie. Who wouldn't root for Morgan Freeman in a strong (however tall) portrayal of Nelson Mandela?

Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year with lots of movie blessings!
Jana Segal
www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com

"The Secret Life of Bees"

Writer/Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, winner of the Independent Spirit Award for Sundance hit, "Love & Basketball," has now brought the beloved, acclaimed best-seller, "The Secret Life of Bees" to the screen.

1964, South Carolina. After a tragic accident leaves her motherless, Lily Owens (played with open-eyed honestly by Dakota Fanning) is raised in a loveless home by her cruel, distant father. Fourteen year old Lily longs for a mother she never knew. When her only friend, their black maid Rosaleen, ends up in the hospital and under arrest for insulting a racist white man, the girls are forced to go on the run. The only trace of her mama's past is a honey jar label that Lily found in her few processions.

Lily and Rosaleen end up on the doorstep of the Boatwrights, the black sisters who own the successful honey farm. Lily concocts an elaborate lie to persuade the maternal August Boatwright (played with warm dignity by Queen Latifah) to temporarily take them in. They are met with some resistance from the guarded June (Alicia Keys), a classical cellist and civil rights activist. But they are welcomed enthusiastically by the open-hearted May (played with touching vulnerability by Sophie Okonedo). They soon find that hyper-sensitive May is moved to tears by the mention of anything sad.

August teaches Lily how to tend the bees, and May whole heartedly embraces both girls. They are soon accepted as part of the family. But Lily still needs to find the truth of why her mother left her.

This is a coming of age story and parable about how to cope with the painful truth and find forgiveness. As Lily's young love interest puts it, "It's not just about the truth. It's about what you do with it." The two sisters illustrate different ways to deal with the hard truths of life. June has closed her heart and built a protective wall to keep out hurtful emotions. While May has completely opened her heart and feels everyone's pain. Her heart is open to joy but it is also an open wound. Lily says that she would rather be like May than her father who has blocked his emotions turning him into a cruel man.

Writer/Director Gina Prince-Bythewood

I loved being in this world and a part of this loving family - so much that I stayed for a second screening. This is due in part to Gina Prince-Bythewood's excellent adaptation and the wonderful acting of Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, and especially Sophie Okonedo - who is literally the heart of the film.

If you're looking for a sweet way to spend the afternoon, "The Secret Life of Bees" will supply the honey.

Movie blessings!

Jana Segal

http://www.reelinspiration.blogspot.com/