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The Visit

2000, Movie, R, 126 mins

The Visit: Review

VISIT, THE
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Rather than simply film Kosmond Russell's award-winning play, first-time feature director Jordan Walker-Pearlman made a few improvements. Unfortunately, the result is so overloaded with extra characters, tangled story lines, dance numbers, fantasies and flashbacks that the once-simple plot feels puffed-up and irritatingly self-important. And that's too bad, because the film includes fine performances and some very inventive camerawork from cinematographer John Ndiaga Demp. But it lacks the very first thing a director should provide: direction. Alex Waters (Hill Harper) has been sentenced to 25 years in California's Union Grove State Penitentiary for a rape he swears he didn't commit. He's also HIV+, and unless he's granted parole at his upcoming hearing, he faces the prospect of dying behind prison walls, within earshot of the nearby passing trains that have come to symbolize freedom. Alex, however, disregards the prison psychiatrist's (Phylicia Rashad) advice and remains unrepentant, asocial and understandably angry, an attitude that won't go over well with the parole board. What they can't see — Alex's inner development — becomes clear to us through a series of emotionally charged visits, first from his successful older brother, Tony (Obba Babatunde), then his parents (Marla Gibbs and Billy Dee Williams) then finally the one person who might turn his life around, recovering crack addict and incest survivor Felicia MacDonald (Rae Dawn Chong), whom Alex once loved. In addition to all the extraneous narrative devices — none of which add much to the plot — it's clear that Walker-Pearlman encouraged his cast to improvise around Russell's dialogue and all too often resorts to abrupt fade-outs to get his desperate actors out of dead-end scenes. There are flashes of inspiration, and it's unfair to dismiss Walker-Pearlman out of hand. He's clearly a talent in the raw, but that talent remains buried under a mountain of over-ambition and poor judgement. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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