Samuel L. Jackson gives a subtle and charismatic performance as Louis Batiste, a respected doctor and patriarch in 1960s Louisiana in Kasi Lemmons’s evocative small-town family drama, the actress’s debut feature as a writer-director. The focus of Lemmons’s story is 10-year-old Eve (Jurnee Smollett), whose growing suspicions of her father’s infidelity turns her family’s life upside down; the excellent supporting cast includes the legendary Diahann Carroll as a mysterious fortune teller. 

Director: Kasi Lemmons. Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Jurnee Smollett. 1997. 109 min. USA. Color. English. 35mm. Print courtesy of the Kasi Lemmons Collection at the Academy Film Archive with special thanks to Cotty Chubb.

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