Word: bayou
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Voodoo is an omnipresent force in Eve's Bayou, one that imbues the film with a mysticism that balances the inherent realism with an aura of dark fantasy. Lemmons implicitly contrasts the rational Louis, whose concerns are limited to those of the modern world, with the spiritual Mozelle. The practice of voodoo plays a natural role within the Batiste family. The adolescent Cisely rejects the practice to assert her authority, while Eve gradually learns to grasp Mozelle's clairvoyance...
...recounts finding their father with another woman to her skeptical sister. As Cisely tells a revised version of the story, she and Eve step into the tale, calling into question the validity of Eve,s original version. As with everything else in the film, the flashbacks in Eve's Bayou are fallible. We so often accept flashbacks and other such dramatic devices as literal fact; in Eve's Bayou, nothing is so concrete...
Directorial flourishes such as these elevate Eve's Bayou and bolster the story. The film is a collection of indelibly etched images, from the casual falling of a hat to a spider weaving its web. But Lemmons and cinematographer Amy Vincent never allow visual flair to obscure the story. Lemmons uses these tricks sparingly in favor of understated, poetic imagery...
...despite the tragic horror that marks Eve's Bayou, the film even contains moments of macabre absurdity involving the end result of Mozelle's prophecies. Lemmons, perhaps inspired by the morbid wit of The Silence of the Lambs, brings a sly humor to seemingly inappropriate moments...
...film finds humor in tragedy, truth in mysticism and fiction in fact. And when it reaches its powerful conclusion, Kasi Lemmons leaves no simple answers to the questions she poses. In the end nothing is certain, except for the intensity found in the depths of Eve's Bayou...