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The Visit, 2000, 107 minutes, Rated
R
By Carla Robinson
As the first feature film released by Urbanworld Films (the production leg of
Urbanworld, the company behind the groundbreaking, eponymous film festival), The Visit
serves up serious conflict tempered by redemption. At its core is Alex Waters (Hill Harper
doing serious work here), a young man who has lived his life with great carelessness and
irresponsibility. As a result, he is serving a twenty-five year prison sentence for a rape
he insists he did not commit. And since irony is the hallmark of tragedy, he has
contracted AIDS while incarcerated.
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© 2000 Urbanworld Films
Alex Waters (Hill Harper)
in The Visit |
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The story gets underway when Alex receives
a long overdue visit from his sole sibling, an upstanding older brother named Tony (Obba
Babatundé). Tony has had difficulty dealing with Alex’s situation, so he has simply
avoided it, and he’s not alone. He brings news of their parents, Henry and Lois (the
venerable Billy Dee Williams and Marla Gibbs), who’ve stayed away from Alex even
longer than Tony has.
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Seeking reconciliation and healing, Alex begs Tony to have them come see him and they
finally do. But it seems the Waters are not the kind of people to spawn a criminal and
Henry would rather die than let Alex forget it. Williams does a grand turn as the
unforgiving Henry, in spite of the fact that he only gets to play two emotions, stony and
explosive. The first visit is tumultuous but it paves the way for others. With each new
encounter, we wonder how much Alex can heal before he runs out of time.
Rare is the movie that’s about something these days
and The Visit’s talented cast helps to ground it when it leans too far toward
didacticism. It is not a particularly cinematic film. Adapting from a play (of the same
name by Kosmond Russell), writer/director Jordan Walker-Pearlman, a newcomer, turns in a
screenplay that is too dialogue heavy, which he tries to ease on the directorial side with
innovative camera setups. But you can spin a camera around a bunch of characters sitting
around talking all day long and they’ll still be just that - a bunch of characters
sitting around talking. It works in the theater but this is film, where a single image is
worth an infinite number of words.
Still, The Visit is compelling and worthwhile. Hill Harper’s work is nothing less
than splendid. He brings an emotional depth to the piece that lifts it when scenes run too
long. An aside: Harper holds both a law and a Masters degree from Harvard. If he looks
familiar, he should. He’s done everything from He Got Game to “ER.” Rae
Dawn Chong also turns in a fine performance as Felicia, entering the film like a spray of
light. A recovering crack addict with a devastating past, Felicia comes to visit Alex,
whom she hasn’t seen since childhood, and finds him bitter and unreceptive. She gives
as good as she gets and eventually, her story provides a moving turning point for Alex and
the entire film.
M
March 2001
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