After Paul D. finds his old slave friend Sethe in Ohio and moves in with her and her daughter Denver, a strange girl comes along by the name of "Beloved". Sethe and Denver take her in and then stra...
WHAT I LIKED: Exploring the darkest facets of the slave trade, Toni Morrison's 'Beloved,' is a horror about how guilt and shame haunts its victims.
The story follows a woman called Sethe (Oprah Winfrey) who fled her plantation eighteen years ago and now lives with her youngest daughter Denver (Kimberly Elise) in Ohio. All is far from well though, as when fellow slave Paul D (Danny Glover) turns up on her doorstep, it slowly unravels that Sethe lives with a tremendous amount of grief, anger, and guilt - for the "free," life she now has, for her husband who failed to flee with her, and, most of all, for her other daughter who died years ago. This is firstly manifested by the fact her house is haunted by the daughter's ghost, and later by the fact she even turns up as a possessed woman called Beloved (Thandie Newton) who starts ruining every aspect of their life. Eventually, we learn that Sethe killed her baby to spare her from suffering when her slave owners tracked them down to take them back, and it becomes doubly clear why she's so haunted.
Whether a literal "haunting," or a psychological one is besides the point; the feelings brought to life by the story hit extremely hard and are strikingly unusual to see explored. But the film doesn't just end with that, as it ultimately has Denver (along with a group of women she calls upon) chase the posessed woman out. When played against a beautiful memory of her mother-in-law preaching about loving every aspect of yourself, that makes for a moving final message about these characters denouncing guilt and shame, and moving forward with their lives as much as they can.
That's a powerful thematic journey, but it only translates because the characters are so well written (and so convincingly performed by the stellar cast), and because director Jonathan Demme doesn't shy away from the dark truths which undermine Sethe's feelings.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The execution of some of the horror elements does leave a little to be desired.
VERDICT: 'Beloved,' brilliantly realises the grief and guilt that haunts victims of slavery, but beautifully encourages its characters to let go of those feelings at the end.
