Soul Food (1997)

Story about a large black family who are overseen (and kept in line) by Mother Joe (Irma P. Hall). She has four daughters--three are married and she keeps the families together. She is especially fond of 10 year old Ahmed (Brandon Hammond). She ends up in the hospital in a coma after surgery. The family starts to fall apart--the couples start bickering, one man can't get a job, one has an affair. Ahmed attempts to keep the family all together.MILD SPOILERS It sounds hopeless (a cute little kid getting everyone together) but this actually works! The characters and situations are realistic and the acting is great by everybody. Hammond and Hall are easily the best--Hammond does a great job of not making his kid seem TOO perfect. Vanessa Williams and Mekhi Phifer also lend very strong support. This is one of those rare films that has strong family values without shoving them down your throat. You see these people go through hell but they make it through and it makes it clear that they'll always be there for each other--even when they hate each other. Warm, realistic and just great.It's really too bad this film has an R rating--it's mostly just for VERY strong language and a discreet sex scene--because the values it promotes would be great for a child to see and hear. My only complaints is that it DOES drag a little and sometimes the language gets too strong (Phifer's character really lets loose). Still it's well worth seeing. It lead to a fairly successful Showtime series. I give this a 9.

This is one of the best movies of the 90's. Although it was a hit at the box office when it came out and received very good reviews, it surprisingly received no Oscar nominations and didn't quite mark a revolution in African-American film-making that many critics predicted. However, speaking as a fan of the film ten years later, the film did spark a minor revolution that may have indirectly resulted in Tyler Perry's recent success.Also, Irma P. Hall should definitely have been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in this movie, because she truly represented the glue that held the cast together. You could blame racism on the fact that she didn't get nominated, but when you consider that this movie came out the same year as such monumentally great films as "L.A. Confidential", "Good Will Hunting", "As Good As It Gets", "The Full Monty", "Donnie Brasco", and (perhaps most especially) "Titanic", one can understand why "Soul Food" got a bit lost in the shuffle.However, if this movie has one fundamental flaw, it is the fact that it was a movie about family, and really should have been a family movie. Heck, it was one of those movies that really transcended the boundaries of race. What stopped it from being one of those movies was it's "R" rating.Of course, the MPAA really isn't to blame on this one. For one, they could have eliminated all but one of the "F-words" (except perhaps for Vivica A. Fox telling Vanessa L. Williams, "You are getting on my F**king nerves". I thought that use of the F-word was appropriate enough given the context). For instance, I thought Williams' "f**k the family" rant, as much as her frustration was significant to that point in the film, could have been expressed using other words.Second, related to Williams' rant, was it necessary for Miles (Michael Beach) to back Faith (Gina Rivera) up against a wall and hump her with his buttocks completely exposed? That scene alone was probably the straw that broke the camels back. The scene could have been just as effective, not to mention tense, if Miles was passionately kissing Faith. The scene that instead remains a permanent fixture in this movie borders on soft core porn. I'm not saying this because I'm a moralist. I'm saying this because this film really would have been a bigger hit if it was not rated R.Otherwise, the film was great. The acting was top notch, and the story line was very intriguing. I'm predicting that this film will turn out to be the black "It's A Wonderful Life". By that, I mean that like the Frank Capra classic, it will gain much more of a following in the next decade or two. We shall see.

I totally enjoyed this movie. It had me full of emotion and rubbing my belly all at the same time. It's hard to understand why all families cannot sit down and enjoy times like the Joseph family had. Lem getting arrested, Teri & Max at each others throats, Mama Joe's illness, and Faith and Myles' bad deed really tested that love. This was a film that brought to light about hard times and rising above them. One person can make a difference. Ahmad proved that by getting the whole family back for "sunday dinner." It is always a silver lining to a negative situation. That food would definitely bring me back! We need more of these times in today's world. Forget materials things, love is bigger.

Wonderfully acted and well-written comedy/drama (more drama, though) about an extended family who spend their sundays together with a huge dinner. What's on the menu? Soul Food of course!But when Big Mama Joe (and the glue of the family) falls into a coma the family fall out, it's up to Maxine's boy Ahmad, (and story narrator) to bring the big family together again for another sunday dinner.Of course when portraying a realistic family it helps to have good actors, and with a stellar cast including Vanessa L. Williams, Vivica A. Fox and Nia Long they pull it off successfully.Just like what the tagline says: Reality with a bite.