SOUL FOOD

SYNOPSIS:
Sunday evenings are very special at the home of Mother Joe (Irma P. Hall). The matriarch of a large, often embattled clan, Mother Joe presides over a 40 year tradition of extensive, elaborate Sunday afternnon family dinner gatherings. Fried chicken, sweet cornbread, smokd ham and deep-dish peach pie . . . Her three daughters (Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long) help prepare the feast each week – but they and their husbands aren’t making things easy. One is a succees, a clever lawyer; her husband is also a lawyer but has his heart set on a musical career; the middle sister is, as she likes to point out, "a successful wife and mother’, but is the wildest of the three. The youngest is newly married to an ex-convict and has just opened her own beauty salon. The arguments, over money, husbands, the past, the present, the future – anything – rise and fall like waves. Then there’s the reclusive Uncle Pete (John M. Watson snr), living hidden away in his room. He, too, is the cause of argument. Finally, there is young Ahmad (Brandon Hammond), the narrator of the story, who has a special bond with Mother Joe, his grandmother, whose influence is the glue that keeps the whole family together, despite its surface schisms. When she is struck by a severe illness, the schisms become divides, to Ahmand’s deep dismay. He has to find a way to re-unite his folks, and in the process, they all learn the meaning of ‘soul food’.

"It’s not often that the executive producer is also the composer of most of the songs – and there are QUITE a few: 22 in all, 10 by Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, who lays claim to this fame, and he can be proud of it. His music - and his film – are very good indeed. What’s more, his wife Tracey, is the producer (one of two). So it’s partly a family affair. I mention this because it is pertinent in the case of a film that was born of a fervent and long held desire to celebrate writer/director George Tillman’s childhood memories of his family gatherings at his grandma’s place on Sundays. The Edmonds’ involvement came via the music, but it is nevertheless appropriate. There is a warmth to the film, which is to be expected, but it has more going for it than a nice little inner glow. It is also tough, real, and excruciatingly accurate in its portrayal of family conflicts that get out of hand, and relationships that refuse to bind. At moments I was reminded of Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies, not for any story similarities, but for the notion that secrets and lies swirl within families. That it is set in an extended black family simply gives the film a context: it is universal and wholly absorbing, with marvellous performances – and, of course, terrific black urban music. As for the central theme, it is worth digesting. It is also noteworthy that a Hollywood major like Twentieth Century Fox has stumped up the money to distribute the film, which, while entertaining and touching, is unlikely to be a mainstream commercial hit. Maybe they just liked it, like me."
Andrew L. Urban