The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 310

14 Friday, Nov. 7. 1997 WEEKEND PREVIEW The Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution .4.5 Moody 'Bayou' casts a memorable spell Samuel By Eleanor Ringel FILM EDITOR Jackson and 1 ji Lynn ave you ever walked into a Whitfield II movie, know play a prosperous married couple, but. their union has strains in "Eve's Bayou." 1 i Is 1 i V- ing absolutely nothing about it, and had your breath taken away? if Eve's Bayou" offers just that experience. An astonishingly accomplished first feature by Kasi Lemmons, this poetic and achingly perceptive film deserves a place oo any number of year-end "best" lists.

It begins with a languid yet eerie glide through the Louisiana bayou. It's as if we're being set up for a ghost story and in a sense, 1 we are. This is a ghost story of sorts a tale of family haunted by deception, desire and voodoo. Yet it's a work of great healing, 'x too, almost reminiscent of "To Kill a Mockingbird" in its depiction of a young girl coming to terms with herself and her loved ones. 1 "The summer I killed my 'i father, I was 10 years old," says our narrator, Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett).

She and her older sister, Cisely (Meagan Good), live with their affluent parents in what appears to be the early '60s in a I small town down South. Daddy (Samuel Jackson) is a promi-: nent Louisiana doctor popular, -(. charming and, as the girls' mother 1 (Lynn Whitfield) well knows but refuses to admit, an incorrigible i womanizer. During the party that opens the film a wonderful scene of elegant women in cock-', tail dresses with music tinkling in the background little Eve acci-' dentally interrupts one of her father's sexual assignations. Cise-t ly, who's already a bit too much of a daddy's girl, reassuringly tells her that she didn't see what she thought she saw.

She gives Eve JMother interpretation of the i- jwnty thus intyodpcing the'mov 'tJBe. tileVcsliifttoa illusion fc CHRIS HELCERMANAS-BENGE Trimark Pictures "Eve's Bayou" Grade: A Starring Jurnet Smollett, Samuel Jackson and Lynn Whitfield. Directed by Kasi Lemmons. Rated for language, violence and sexual themes. At metro theaters.

hour. 49 minutes. The verdict: The directorial debut of the year. Don't miss it it three husbands." Mozelle's opposite is Elzora (Diahann Carroll), who doesn't dabble in voodoo; she specializes in it. Eve turns to her when her family begins to fall apart Just about everything about "Eve's Bayou" is just right from the exceptional acting (Smollett, Jackson and Morgan are standouts) to the evocative cinematography and soundtrack.

Better still, almost everything about it is unexpected. Gothic touches like Eve's own developing second sight mingle with small-town gossip and sublime childhood incongruities (a Curious George used as a surrogate voodoo doll), I "Eve's Bayou" will restore your faith in Picasso; Masterworks from The Museum of Modem Art was organized by The Museum of Modem An, New York, in collaboration with the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. A lead corporate grant for this exhibition has been provided by Philip Morris Companle Inc. The exhibition catatogue has been made possible by Cox Enterprises, int. WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER BOX OFFICE 404.733.5OOO 4O4.8i7.87OO Mozelle (Debbi Morgan), a psychic counselor who dabbles in voodoo.

A cruel irony: Her pow-. ers are clouded when it comes to her own future. As Eve says, "Aunt Mozelle could see others' fate but not the deaths of her own Generous support has been provided by The Rich Foundation, The Forward Arts Foundation, Inc. of Atlanta and Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. Additional support has been provided by Norfolk Southern Corporation, Equity Office, GTE Wireless, livingslon Foundation, NationsBank, Wachovia Bank, and John Wieland Homes.

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