Maybe it's because there were four leading actresses, or maybe it's because there wasn't much to it, but the drama in this movie was very tame, hence the movie itself was tame.
Four women were friends and all lived together in a small dig in Harlem: Pauline (Vanessa Williams), Alice (Jasmine Guy), Dorothy (Vanessa Bell Calloway), and the queen of T.V. movies, Lynn Whitfield as Esther. They were the best of friends struggling to get by in Harlem in 1939, the tail end of the Depression. Slowly they began to drift apart and deal with their own issues.
Whereas the movie was decent, there was nothing to firmly grasp, nothing that was really powerful---good or bad. Even when Alice died of tuberculosis it was just like she was no longer around. Like one moment she existed and the next scene she didn't. Her demise was as emotionless as it was unceremonious.
And when Dorothy had her nervous breakdown, it was more perplexing than it was sad. Things were going well for her all things considered then in a matter of moments her cousin moves in, she sees a poster of her boyfriend, she sees her cousin taking advantage of her home, and then SNAP! She's a sobbing mess who never recovered.
It was all too generic: their friendship, their hardships, and even Esther's treachery. A movie like this is nice and nothing more, but I don't invest time to watch movies that are simply nice. If I want nice I'll watch a Nat Geo episode on dolphins.
Four women were friends and all lived together in a small dig in Harlem: Pauline (Vanessa Williams), Alice (Jasmine Guy), Dorothy (Vanessa Bell Calloway), and the queen of T.V. movies, Lynn Whitfield as Esther. They were the best of friends struggling to get by in Harlem in 1939, the tail end of the Depression. Slowly they began to drift apart and deal with their own issues.
Whereas the movie was decent, there was nothing to firmly grasp, nothing that was really powerful---good or bad. Even when Alice died of tuberculosis it was just like she was no longer around. Like one moment she existed and the next scene she didn't. Her demise was as emotionless as it was unceremonious.
And when Dorothy had her nervous breakdown, it was more perplexing than it was sad. Things were going well for her all things considered then in a matter of moments her cousin moves in, she sees a poster of her boyfriend, she sees her cousin taking advantage of her home, and then SNAP! She's a sobbing mess who never recovered.
It was all too generic: their friendship, their hardships, and even Esther's treachery. A movie like this is nice and nothing more, but I don't invest time to watch movies that are simply nice. If I want nice I'll watch a Nat Geo episode on dolphins.