JUST A QUICK REVIEW ON "EVE'S BAYOU" THE FILM, FULL OF SPOILERS
SPOILERS AHEAD!
QUICK REVIEW
Janiyah Mosley
Film Review on “Eve’s Bayou”
Kasi Lemmons’ Eve’s Bayou, begins with a startling message from the main character. Right at the beginning, it captures the audience’s attention with the words, “The summer I killed my father, I was ten years old.” The entirety of the film focuses on how the young Eve (Journee Smollett) “kills” her father. This film has one question whether or not they believe in the supernatural, which answers if they believe she did have to do with the death of her father. The film puts fate and the supernatural against each other. The film centers around whether or not Eve had to do with her father’s passing or if his luck simply ran out. It makes one wonder if he deserved his fate.
The film was brought to life in 1998 but brings the viewer back into the ‘60s during the summer. The setting is Louisiana. Eve is the main character who the story is told by. If not through her eyes, the viewer sees images through her Aunt’s. This is a collection of memories. The main memory centers around her witnessing an unsettling incident. She has caught her father, Louis, cheating on her mother with another woman during a party. They were in the garage having a laugh and having sex when she noticed. The father notices Eve and decides to lie, telling her she has misinterpreted the situation.
The summer is written with chaos being the main theme. Cisely, Eve’s older sister, is going through puberty. This has caused her to act out and speak her mind abruptly. She is trying to find out how to feel pretty and is coming to terms with her sexuality. She dresses differently, and curses when angered. Eve is finding out that her father is cheating on her mother as she snoops
about, following him. The viewer suspects the mother knows when she is seen in the kitchen and cuts herself. Eve yells about Cisely taking long baths and her mother cutting herself. This shows everyone is going through their own dilemma throughout the film.
Cisely tells Eve a disturbing secret. Cisely has gone downstairs to comfort her father, but he was drunk. Cisely tells Eve that he tried to molest her. This is why she has been acting out. Cisely is then sent away but does not tell her mother the secret, and makes Eve promise to keep it to herself too.
Eve is angered by this and seeks out Elzora, who lives in the bayou and does voodoo. She runs into a man named Lenny and speaks to him. The conversation ends up alluding to his wife cheating on him with Eve’s father. She finds the mysterious Elzora. She asks to handle her father and is told to come back again. Eventually, she returns and asks for the voodoo doll to harm her father but Elzora informs her that she put a curse over her father instead. Eve is worried and rushes to find her father in a bar. He is having a conversation with Matty, Lenny’s wife. Lenny arrives and drunkenly threatens him. Both men and Matty leave the bar, but Lenny threatens Louis and tells him to never speak to Louis again. The viewer gets a black and white image and memory. It is barely shown, but the audience knows Lenny has shot Louis.
After the funeral, the audience sees Eve reading a letter left by Louis. It is him going against his cheating allegations. It was addressed to his wife, Mozelle. He says Cisely came to him to kiss him and he was so drunk that he slapped her out of anger. Eve is a voodoo priestess and has the ability to see into the past. She uses her gift to see what truly happened that night between Cisely and her father. The end is of the two girls holding hands as they gaze into the sunset.
In conclusion, The movie eloquently gives us an insight on the reckless summer Eve and her family has had. It allows the viewer to question their beliefs as they are given flashbacks in black and white, and never clearly pointing out the actual situation. This caused the viewer to somewhat draw their own conclusions on what truly happened in certain scenes. One questions whether or not Eve is to blame for her father’s death and if he deserved such a fate. It also makes one wonder what truly happened to Cisely.
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