Eve's Bayou
By Lynnette Nicholas,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
'90s African American family drama has violence, language.
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Eve's Bayou
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What's the Story?
EVE'S BAYOU centers on Eve (Jurnee Smollet), a 10-year-old girl who witnesses her father, Dr. Louis Batiste (Samuel L. Jackson), the most well-respected doctor in an upscale "colored" community in Louisiana, having an affair with Matty Mereaux (Lisa Nicole Carson), despite having a beautiful, gracious wife Roz Batiste (Lynn Whitfield). When Eve divulges this information to her big sister, Cisely (Meagan Good), who has a very close and endearing relationship with her father, her sister tries to dissuade Eve's perception of things. Family secrets, family relationships, and generational spiritual gifts all converge one chaotic summer in 1962 in the cozy Southern community of Eve's Bayou.
Is It Any Good?
This movie masterfully weaves together a tapestry that transparently depicts the burdens of young Black girlhood, the legacy of 'blood memory' and spiritual generational inheritances. Set in Louisiana, a geographical location that's laced with unspoken histories buried in the very soil, Eve's Bayou symbolically highlights the bridge that links the past and the present. The women in Eve's Bayou have supernatural gifts, and the narrator speaks of her African ancestor Eve.
Eve's Bayou provides powerful visual imagery for the esoteric, supernatural, and religious themes present within the film. Topics such as the importance of oral history, family historians inheriting the gift of "sight," and the jelimuso, a West African term for the memory of the people, are denoted within the film. However, the notion remains that memory can also be unreliable. As the opening and ending quote of the film states, "Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain." This is a beautiful film that remains culturally, historically, and aesthetically relevant.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about stereotypes. In Eve's Bayou, the families of color depicted all own their own homes, have good jobs, drive fancy cars, and have social grace. In what way do the characters in the film defy stereotypes?
There are many strong female relationships in Eve's Bayou. In what ways do the Baptiste kids show their love for one another? In what way does Eve Baptiste show courage, curiosity, and empathy in her actions? In what ways does Eve's honesty lead to negative or positive consequences in the film?
Sight and memory are major themes within this film. It what way is the ability to "see" into other realms depicted in Eve's Bayou? What role do symbols play in the storytelling?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: November 7, 1997
- Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan
- Director: Kasi Lemmons
- Inclusion Information: Black directors, Black actors
- Studio: Trimark
- Genre: Drama
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters, History
- Run time: 109 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: for sexuality and language.
- Last updated: April 20, 2023
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