Movie Review

Constellation (2007)

Reviewed by Scott Brown | Feb 07, 2007

Scott Brown

Scott Brown writes the Hit List for EW and is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio -- he has the tote bag to prove it

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EW's GRADE

Details Limited Release: Feb 02, 2007; Rated: PG-13; Length: 105 Minutes; Genre: Drama; With: Ever Carradine and Rae Dawn Chong

$URSA MINOR Constellation\'s family tale has star power (Gabrielle Union, Williams, and Zoe Saldana, pictured) but not much dramatic wattage$

Image credit: Greg Gayne

URSA MINOR Constellation's family tale has star power (Gabrielle Union, Williams, and Zoe Saldana, pictured) but not much dramatic wattage

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Deeply odd films are often deeply personal ones, and Constellation, a dazed, inchoate drama about a mixed-race Alabama family, tells a story that's clearly close to the heart of writer-director Jordan Walker-Pearlman (The Visit). So close, in fact, it lacks perspective: Neither the camera nor the script can focus. After a Gothic '60s prologue (forbidden love, gang rape), the movie somnambulates into generic sentimentality. Billy Dee Williams, as the family's long-absent patriarch, reacts to this tonal retreat by looking sleepy. C

Originally posted Feb 02, 2007 Published in issue #921 Feb 16, 2007 Order article reprints

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