Ever since Melvin Van Peebles' revolutionary iconic 1971 movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song credited for ushering in the blaxploitation era, the Van Peebles name has carried a certain amount of gravitas through ensuing film history.
That said, Mandela, son of Melvin's son Mario Van Peebles, I imagine does benefit from name recognition from older black moviegoers - even despite the fact that father Mario, to be fair, has had only a spotty movie career himself.
In this vehicle, Mandela and his wife do credible acting, working with poor stodgy storytelling. If you tuned in midstream to the movie you would think you were watching a life insurance commercial.
The wife, after literally PLEADING with her husband not to leave her and her mother alone out of sheer fear (he leaves anyway), inexplicably, minutes later, she opens the door to a bloodied creepy stranger, without so much as asking him "what happened", then leaves said stranger standing at her open door while she goes to fetch a cell phone which she takes forever to retrieve.
THEN, after this stranger has pawed through all of her personal longings within reach, she HANDS the creeper her personal cell phone and allows him to rummage through all her personal photos. Really? Does she ask for her phone back. No. She allows him to casually keep scrolling while she simply fidgets nervously.
THEN when she tries to flee the creeper she encounters one locked door after another because APPARENTLY even in her OWN house she doesn't remember which doors she keeps locked and which ones she keeps unlocked.
This is the level of logic we encounter throughout the movie.
Watch the movie if only by chance your some sort of Van Peebles completist.
