A cast of distinguished veterans and promising newcomers headline this stark prison drama from first-time writer-director Jordan Walker-Pearlman. Hill Harper stars as embittered inmate Alex, sentenced to serve time for a rape he claims that he didn't commit. His link to the outside world is his upper-middle class bother Tony (Obba Babatunde), the only family member who's come to visit him in the half-decade he's been in jail. On his latest visit, Alex pleads with Tony to have the rest of the
family visit him, admitting that he's in the final stages of his battle with AIDS. Through flashbacks, dream sequences, and real-time encounters, Alex interacts with the people who have shaped his life -- his parents (Marla Gibbs and Billy Dee Williams), his old friend (Rae Dawn Chong), and his therapist (Phylicia Rashad) -- and attempts to overcome the seething anger and resentment that have punctuated his time in prison. The Visit was greeted with much acclaim when it premiered at the 2000 Method Fest Independent Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
It's hard not to give it bonus points for avoiding prison movie clichés and for taking a long, unblinking look at the complex dynamics of one American family.
More important than the technical precision of the actors' turns is the rapport they all share--which ultimately lends this story of a family its authentic, immediate poignancy.
"The Visit" is an outstanding expanded view of a prison inmate dying of AIDS. His world is defined by visits from family members and an old girl friend, and by his meetings with a prison psychologist and the parole board. Each encounter is followed by dream sequences where he imagines an intimacy with them that is
impossible across the physical and mental barriers defining their short time together. The story paints a larger picture of anger, love, and forgiveness that reaches beyond the unsentimental and unvarnished prison drama to a universal redemption unbound by prison walls. Say amen somebody; this is true religion at its best, sans God or Bible, but rich in human love.
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