Soap opera with a Jamaican patois — that of the black housekeeper in a fractured, then broken, Baltimore home. The housekeeper herself, notwithstanding a deep dark secret, is too good to be true: supremely self-possessed, wryly patronizing, witty, wise, and Whoopi Goldberg. But the Only Child of the household (since the crib-death of his sister) is true enough: especially in his feelings of powerlessness in the face of parental egotism. Director Robert Mulligan at this rate will obviously never live down his reputation as a sensitive handler of children (To Kill a Mockingbird, Up the Down Staircase, Summer of '42, et al.), but it should not go unnoticed that he handles plenty of other things here sensitively too: space, light, points of view (or in short, his cameraman, Freddie Francis). Oh, and even Whoopi. With Neil Patrick Harris, Kathleen Quinlan, and Michael Ontkean. (1988) — Duncan Shepherd
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