A letter from beyond the grave informs an old Arkansas yokel (off whose tongue, "nigger" rolls easily) that his departed mother was not his biological mother, that he in fact is half black, and it dispatches him on a solemn odyssey to Chicago to look up his fully black half-brother. The bumpkin-in-the-big-city material is sharply imagined, and the meeting of the men, and eventually of their minds, is not too heavy, not too sweet. The inspiration runs down in the last half-hour, with monochromed flashbacks of pantomimed histrionics, and no sure way how to finish. But there is much to admire. Straightforward direction by Richard Pearce (who, in the same vein, made the fine Long Walk Home). Clean, bright, spacious photography by Fred Murphy. Comfortably tailored roles for Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones (exhibiting a slight stammer, especially on r's, especially words like respect and responsibility). Solid support from Michael Beach as the black man's bitter son, and Irma P. Hall as his blind Aunt T., who does not miss much. Her recital of the grocery list is a delightful piece of "found poetry." (1996) — Duncan Shepherd
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