Plot
Sethe is a former slave living on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio shortly after the Civil War. An angry poltergeist residing in the family home terrorizes her and her three children, causing two of them to run away forever.
Eight years later, Sethe lives alone with her daughter, Denver. Paul D, an old friend from Sweet Home, the plantation Sethe had escaped from years earlier, finds her home and drives off the angry spirit that inhabits it. Afterwards, he proposes he stay and Sethe responds favorably. Shortly after Paul D. moves in, a clean young woman named Beloved, who appears to have a cognitive delay, finds her way into Sethe's yard, and Sethe takes her in.
Denver is initially happy to have Beloved around, but learns that she is Sethe's reincarnated daughter. Nonetheless, she chooses not to tell Beloved's origins to Sethe. One night, Beloved, aware that Paul D dislikes her, immobilizes him with a spell, rapes him. He resolves to tell Sethe what happened, but instead asks her to have a baby with him. When Stamp Paid, a co-worker of Paul D who has known her for many years, learns of Paul D's plans for a family with Sethe, he pulls a newspaper clipping featuring Sethe and tells her story to the illiterate Paul D.
Years ago, Sethe was raped by the nephews of Schoolteacher, the owner of Sweet Home. She complained to Mrs. Garner, his sister-in-law, who confronted him. In retaliation, Schoolteacher and his nephews brutally whipped Sethe, leaving a "tree" of keloid scars on her back. Heavily pregnant with her fourth child, Sethe planned to escape. Her other children were sent off earlier to live with Baby Suggs, her mother-in-law, but Sethe stayed behind to look for her husband, Halle. She was assaulted while searching for him in the barn. The Schoolteacher's nephews held her down, raped her, and forcibly took her breast milk.
When Halle failed to appear, Sethe ran off alone. She crossed paths with Amy Denver, a white girl who treated her injuries and delivered her child, whom she named after her. Sethe eventually reached Baby Suggs' home, but her initial happiness was short-lived when Schoolteacher came to claim Sethe and her children.
In desperation, Sethe slit her older daughter's throat, and attempted to kill her other children. Stamp Paid managed to stop her and the disgusted Schoolteacher departed. Sethe is detained for an unknown amount of time, and it is later revealed she was saved from hanging by the prominent Cincinnati family the Bodwins, who knew Baby Suggs.
Paul D, horrified by the revelation and suddenly understanding the origin of the poltergeist, confronts Sethe. She unapologetically justifies herself, insisting her children are better off dead than enslaved. Paul D. departs shortly thereafter in protest. Afterwards, Sethe realizes that Beloved is the reincarnation of her dead daughter.
Elated yet guilty, Sethe spoils Beloved with elaborate gifts while neglecting Denver. Beloved soon throws a destructive tantrum and her malevolent presence causes living conditions in the house to deteriorate. The women live in squalor and Sethe is unable to work, having become physically and mentally drained by Beloved's parasitic nature. Denver becomes depressed yet, inspired by a memory of her grandmother's confidence in her, she musters the courage to seek employment.
Once Denver gets work with the Bodwins, women from the local church visit Sethe's to perform an exorcism. They do this partly from guilt; years before, they hadn't warned Sethe of Schoolteacher's impending arrival. They are comforting the family, praying and singing loudly when Denver's new employer arrives to pick her up for work. Sethe sees him and, reminded of Schoolteacher's arrival, attacks him with an icepick, but is subdued by Denver and the women. During the commotion, Beloved disappears completely and Sethe, freed from Beloved's grip, becomes permanently bedridden.
Some months later, Paul D encounters Denver at the marketplace. She has become a confident and mature young woman. Arriving at Sethe's he finds her suffering from a deep malaise. He assures Sethe that he and Denver will now take care of her. She tells him she doesn't see the point, as Beloved, her "best thing", is gone. Paul D disagrees, telling Sethe that she herself is her own best thing.
Box office
Beloved did not come close to making back its $80 million budget. It grossed only $8,165,551 on its opening weekend, [11] ranking #5, and was beaten by the horror movie Bride of Chucky , which ranked #2 and grossed approximately $11,830,855 on the same weekend. Oprah Winfrey went on public record stating that she ate 30 pounds (14 kg) of macaroni and cheese when she was informed the Saturday after the movie opened that "we got beat by something called Chucky." [12] She also claimed that Beloved's failure at the box office was the worst moment in her career and resulted in her suffering a major depression. [13] "It was the only time in my life that I was ever depressed, and I recognised that I (was) depressed because I've done enough shows (on the topic). 'Oh, this is what people must feel like who are depressed.'" [12]
Director Jonathan Demme commented: "Beloved only played in theaters for four weeks. It made $22 million — I think that's a lot of money. And the only reason it left theaters after a month was because the Disney corporation that released the picture wanted all the Beloved theaters — where we were doing very well, in a number of situations — but the Walt Disney company wanted those theaters for Adam Sandler's Waterboy . So, we were told that they were gonna bring us back at the end of the year, and they didn't. But the picture did very respectfully. It was in the top ten its whole life." [14]
The film remained in theaters into the holiday season and, by December 27, 1998, had grossed $22,746,521. [11] The film later returned to theaters for two weeks in March 1999, grossing an additional $110,000. [11] It was no longer listed in the top 10 on the box office chart by the November 6–8 weekend and had dropped to the rank of 12 on the chart by then. [15]
Critical reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Beloved is currently assigned a 72% "fresh" rating based on 127 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.5 out of 10. The site's consensus states, "A powerful, emotional and successful film adaptation of the original novel." [16] It has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 24 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. [18]
Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 3½ stars out of 4, praising its cast and emotional weight of the storylines. He wrote that its nonlinear narrative "coils through past and present, through memory and hallucination, giving us shards of events that we are required to piece back together. It is not an easy film to follow. ... The complexity is not simply a stylistic device; it is built out of Sethe's memories, and the ones at the core are so painful that her mind circles them warily, afraid to touch." [19]
Comparing the film and the novel to the Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw , he noted the use of supernatural elements "to touch on deep feelings" as well as the deliberate lack of a final explanation. He added, "Spirit manifestations come from madness and need not follow logical agendas. It is a remarkable and brave achievement for Demme and his producer and star, Winfrey, to face this difficult material head-on and not try to dumb it down into a more accessible, less evocative form." [19]
He also expressed the view that some of the audience "will not like it–will find it confusing or too convoluted. And it does not provide the kind of easy lift at the end that they might expect. Sethe's tragic story is the kind where the only happy ending is that it is over." [19]
Accolades
- Academy Awards
- Best Costume Design: Colleen Atwood (Nominated)
- Chicago Film Critics
- Most Promising Actress: Kimberly Elise (Winner)
- Best Supporting Actress: Kimberly Elise (Nominated)
- Best Cinematography: Tak Fujimoto (Nominated)
- NAACP Image Awards
- Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture: Danny Glover (Winner)
- Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: Oprah Winfrey (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Beah Richards (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Kimberly Elise (Nominated)
- Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Thandie Newton (Nominated)
- Outstanding Motion Picture: (Nominated) [20]
