It was nice to see a movie on the Lifetime Movies channel that had an interesting plot and hopeful ending instead of the tired genre of women who have to leave abusive husbands.
I agree with those commentators who loved the performances. The actors' portrayals of the characters make these people believable -- it would have been so easy for them to fall into stereotype or one-dimension, but the actors actually made these characters real, complicated, flawed and redeemable human beings.
***Plot summary may contain spoilers*** The story line is kind of humorous. A young boy, Thaniel, is forced by some cool (to him) older hoods to hold a gun during a robbery attempt, and they use his fingers to pull the trigger to wound Reynolds' character. I didn't quite understand why the boy's mom, Tyree, decided to drive to her family home so far away with a man bleeding from a wound in the taxi she drove, but people do strange things in real life, too. Her family is a mixture of sweet, sad, passionate, and funny. They accept her back into the fold as the prodigal daughter, though they didn't know exactly how prodigal she had been. Eli (Reynolds' character) helps her to open up and heal the rifts within the family and within herself. To do so she must face up and 'fess up to the truth of her past. Her family's old Southern evangelicalism allows for them to forgive her and redeem herself and her son.
I disagree with those commentators who think that the religious aspect was phony or overblown. Anyone who has ever lived in the Southern U.S. knows that religion plays this role in people's lives, and I believe it was accurately portrayed based on my experience living in the South. The symbolism was very apparent, but wasn't cheesy.
All-in-all, I think this is a beautiful movie, with a mixture of humor, pain, religion, secrets, and in the end, a new beginning.
I agree with those commentators who loved the performances. The actors' portrayals of the characters make these people believable -- it would have been so easy for them to fall into stereotype or one-dimension, but the actors actually made these characters real, complicated, flawed and redeemable human beings.
***Plot summary may contain spoilers*** The story line is kind of humorous. A young boy, Thaniel, is forced by some cool (to him) older hoods to hold a gun during a robbery attempt, and they use his fingers to pull the trigger to wound Reynolds' character. I didn't quite understand why the boy's mom, Tyree, decided to drive to her family home so far away with a man bleeding from a wound in the taxi she drove, but people do strange things in real life, too. Her family is a mixture of sweet, sad, passionate, and funny. They accept her back into the fold as the prodigal daughter, though they didn't know exactly how prodigal she had been. Eli (Reynolds' character) helps her to open up and heal the rifts within the family and within herself. To do so she must face up and 'fess up to the truth of her past. Her family's old Southern evangelicalism allows for them to forgive her and redeem herself and her son.
I disagree with those commentators who think that the religious aspect was phony or overblown. Anyone who has ever lived in the Southern U.S. knows that religion plays this role in people's lives, and I believe it was accurately portrayed based on my experience living in the South. The symbolism was very apparent, but wasn't cheesy.
All-in-all, I think this is a beautiful movie, with a mixture of humor, pain, religion, secrets, and in the end, a new beginning.