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

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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