Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones, Michael Beach, Irma P. Hall
This quiet drama is original, often affecting and enhanced by characteristically thoughtful performances from Duvall and Jones.
Duvall is a low-key Arkansas redneck who learns that his biological mother was black and had another son, now living in Chicago. Shocked though he is, Duvall drives off in his pickup in search of him. He succeeds a bit too easily, and when he is mugged by four black teenagers, half-brother Jones takes him in. In his new home, Duvall meets Hall, an old blind woman who is an aunt to both men and a curmudgeon to all, and Beach, Jones's disillusioned son who's not that thrilled to have a new white uncle. Throughout, Duvall is subjected to a series of tests of his blackness, and the audience is subjected to a series of plot contrivances that sorely test credibility.
Duvall and Jones have little of consequence to say, but their expressive faces speak volumes about their struggle to accept each other. Even when the premise seems its lamest, watching these two actors is great fun. (PG-13)
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