Woman Thou Art Loosed Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)September 22nd, 2004
WOMAN, THOU ART LOOSED
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Magnolia Pictures
Grade: B+
Directed by: Michael Schultz
Written by: Stan Foster, novel by T.D. Jakes
Cast: Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, T.D. Jakes, Debbi Morgan, Michael Boatman, Clifton Powell, Idalis DeLeon, Sean Blakemore, Ricky Harris
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/21/04
The United States has a bulging prison population of some two million unfortunate souls. Some are in jail (senselessly, methinks) because of our absurdly strict policy on drug possession, others for theft, still more for crimes of violence. As for what makes a person a criminal aside from opportunity, criminologists are only somewhat divided while far more disagreements reign on what to do about the problem. Without much doubt, however, we can say that being abused as a minor–molested, raped, beaten–is no small factor in turning a person into a life of crime.
While childhood abuse cuts across racial and class lines, there can be little doubt that both victims and perps are primarily from lower socioeconomic classes, the latter acting out of frustration, mere opportunity, or who-knows-what. Bishop T.D.Jakes, a gifted preacher, writer and performer, wrote a novel describing the problem in which his characters are composites, thus giving a work of fiction an engrossing and encompassing look at the entire issue of child abuse, revenge, and redemption. The novel has been adapted into a screenplay by Stan Foster, and directed by Michael Schultz who, in three spots utilize an effective device, well-known on the legitimate stage, of having three characters come forward as individuals under closeup, explaining to the audience what has been going on in their minds.
Kimberly Elise ("The Manchurian Candidate," "John Q") delivers an emotional, credible performance as Michelle who, at the age of eight received a premonition of evil to come. Her mother's boyfriend, Reggie (Clifton Powell) lasciviously got her alone and told her that one day soon she will fill out and become a real woman. When Michelle reaches the age of twelve, she is raped by the man, though her mother, Cassie (Loretta Devine), perhaps knowing deep down that her daughter is telling the truth about the incident, refuses to believe that the girl's bloody dress is anything more than the beginning of her periods.
Director Schultz tells the story in a zigzagging narrative, delivering bits and pieces of the life of Michelle and those about her, frequently cutting to a scene of an actual revival meeting conducted by the novelist, the charismatic bishop T.D. Jakes, who preaches before an large, S.R.O. house. Without actually showing details, Schultz lets us realize that Michelle has turned her early life into drugs and prostitution and is severely beaten by her pusher and pimp, Pervis (Sean Blakemore) while morally supported by her neighbor, Twana (Debbi Morgan) and nice-guy Todd (Michael Boatman) who courts her with only limited success. Despite her (probably) limited education, Elise's Michelle comes across as articulate, cutting, sometimes tender, in a performance that helped win the movie the American Spirit Award at the Santa Barbara Festival. To his credit, Schultz, and presumably Jakes in his novel, presents Clifton Powell's Reggie as a complex man who for the most part has been faithful for twenty years to his woman and who despite years of lies attempts to find redemption in Jakes's revival meetings. "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" is hard-hitting, entertaining, and without casting aspersion on its value to a paying adult audience at the multiplex could serve as a part of a high-school health education curriculum.
Rated R. 99 minutes © Harvey Karten
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