Soul Food

I didn't really want to see Soul Food that much but I thought I might as well give it a go. I was fully impressed. I was glued to my seat the whole way through. The acting is superb, the storyline is both funny and touching. It is an unmissable film telling the story of an Afro-American family going through hard times.

Trust me, Soul Food is a good film which left me shocked at how touching and how nice the film was.

My rating : 8/10.

Family is going every Sunday evening to grandmother Irma P. Hall's home for supper of corn bread, chicken, catfish, and all the other fixings. But when the diabetes takes her, is there anything that can hold them together? Life is hard, and sisters Vanessa Williams, Viveca Fox, and Nia Long can fight like cats and dogs, and the men are prickly and proud in this movie by George Tillman Jr. As life goes on and the cares of world and ambition pull them apart, Mekhi Phifer hatches a plan to keep the family together.

Although the details are often surprising and sometimes threatening, it's a recognition that people express their love in in uncomfortable ways. For people who grew up poor, there's no better way to show love than by offering and receiving good food.

OK, so I waited for 4 years to see this movie. Silly me. This movie was very good. Not great, but very good. The acting really carried what was a mediocre script. The movie did peak my interest in how this family addressed issues openly among themselves. They did not try to sweep things under the rugs. Rather, they used "Sunday dinner" as an opportunity to address tough family issues such an infidelity, gambling addition and encarceration.

The film was also successful at capturing many aspects of a typical, 90's African-American family. Being half African-American, I can see traces of my very own family in this film and thought that the script was very true, open and honest.

When I first saw this film it reminded me so much of my family I actually got nervous. The story depicted in this film is so true especially in many Black families, especially mine. The story is pretty much about how a family breaks up after the matriarch becomes ill and eventually dies causing rifts to develop due to the fact that the one person who keeps the family grounded is no longer around to mediate disputes and to show love and guidance to the younger generation. This is definitely a wonderful film that should be viewed by every family no matter what race they are.

Wonderfully acted and well-written comedy/drama (more drama, though) about an extended family who spend their sundays together with a huge dinner. What's on the menu? Soul Food of course!

But when Big Mama Joe (and the glue of the family) falls into a coma the family fall out, it's up to Maxine's boy Ahmad, (and story narrator) to bring the big family together again for another sunday dinner.

Of course when portraying a realistic family it helps to have good actors, and with a stellar cast including Vanessa L. Williams, Vivica A. Fox and Nia Long they pull it off successfully.

Just like what the tagline says: Reality with a bite.