[yasr_overall_rating]
When Belle hears of her mother’s passing, it brings her back home to her family and the painful memories she tried to leave behind. Only when she finds the strength to confront her family’s shameful history, does Belle learn that forgiveness has the power to heal the scars of a broken childhood and unlock her heart to the possibility of love.
When Bellissima (Teyonah Parris), or Belle as she prefers to be known, is approached by her estranged aunt Helen (Macy Gray) at her place of employment, she makes it known that she wants nothing to do with her but when she finds out that her mother recently passed away, everything changes. Having moved from Los Angeles to get away from her abusive father and seemingly disentranced mother, she has struggled to make a life for herself in Savannah, Georgia. Against her better judgement, she agrees to go back to California for her mother’s funeral.
However, while she is there, she discovers that her father is bed-ridden and slips in and out of consciousness, incapable of recognizing her. Helen states that it is now up to her to take care of her father as they don’t have the money to pay for a nurse and Belle flat out refuses. With her return home being the first time in many years, and having not kept in touch with anybody, she is initially hostile and unfriendly towards everyone she meets, relatives, old friends, but when she meets Jeremy (Brian White), her ex-boyfriend’s older brother, her cold exterior begins to crack.
As they reminisce about some of the good old times, she begins having flashbacks of her own childhood, one that was saturated with fear and terror from her abusive, alcoholic father David (Leon). To make matters worse, her mother Gayle (Edwina Findley Dickerson), stayed with him, apathetic to the physical and sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband. When her aunt Helen tries to convince her that forgiveness is the first step in a much-needed healing process, Belle tries to bring herself to forgive both of them, but can’t.
She moves back to Georgia, feeling that there is nothing, or no one, left for her in L.A. but when she learns that her mother stayed with her father as long as she did so she could protect her, afraid that if she left, with nowhere to go, child protection services would take her away, she decides once and for all, to move back home to overcome her own personal demons and to try and bring closure to her past, once and for all.
The acting overall is solid and Teyonah Parris gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as Belle, a woman continuously living in her dark, harrowing past while barely managing to survive in the present. The movie takes its time telling the story but towards the end, it becomes bogged down under the weight of a series of unnecessary, melodramatic scenes that include her dead mother appearing to her and talking about letting go of the past. The movie would have fared much better without these extraneous scenes but as it stands, it’s an admirable dramatic piece that is bolstered by a myriad of strong performances.
Available on DVD now
