Word: eveing
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...entire cast shines in their roles. Whitfield's piercing eyes and precise manner embody an unwavering perfection. As subtle variations on another set of Southern siblings, Good and Smollett recall the Finch children from To Kill a Mockingbird. Smollett, in particular, deftly handles Eve's gradual evolution. While gaining a grasp of her powers, she still remains a believable innocent...
Lemmons frequently manipulates memory to illustrate its unpredictability. In an early scene, Eve 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...
These memories frequently return to haunt the members of the Batiste family. The film's most powerful scene finds Mozelle telling the tale of her first husband's murder to the curious Eve. The voice of her husband echoes over hers as Mozelle steps into the scene, which is presented through a mirror. The audience watches Eve as she watches Mozelle participating in her own story. The film dissolves the boundaries of time and place, involving both the characters and the audience in the same story...
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...