This is by far the best of all the movies that Cloud Ten Pictures has produced. The film tackles many major issues - single mothers and the difficulty they have raising their children, family secrets covered up by lies, race relations, inter-faith relations, and others - and yet manages to do so without being heavy-handed.



Wayward young son Thaniel Battle is forced by two older gang members to rob and shoot Jewish shopowner Eli Zeal (Burt Reynolds). His mother, Tyree, doesn't know what to do, so she kidnaps the wounded Zeal and drives him to her estranged family in Louisiana. There her 102-year old grandfather will nurse him back to health while Tyree decides how to keep Thaniel out of trouble with the law.



As Zeal stays with the family he begins to sense that there are some dark secrets that need to come out into the open. He goes from being the one healed to the one who instigates the healing of the Battle family as he cajoles Tyree to reveal what it is that made her leave her family so many years earlier.



From a Christian viewpoint, there are some flaws with this movie. Zeal tells a lie in order to get Tyree to tell the truth, which seems to equate to it taking to wrongs to make a right. Also, once Tyree has revealed her secret, she wants to get right with God. She does this by simply being baptized into the local church; no mention is made of her accepting Jesus Christ into her life. I mention these points only because Cloud Ten is a Christian film company. If they are going to make Christian films that present redemption, then they should make sure that those films portray the true gospel message of that redemption being available only through Christ.



In spite of these flaws, this is still a wonderful tale of restored relationships. Burt Reynolds' performance is actually the weakest among the major characters in the film; he seems to be playing a Jewish stereotype rather than an individual character. Whitman Mayo (probably best-known as Grady on the '70's sitcom "Sanford and Son", though you'll hardly recognize him at first since he shaved his beard) is a delight as the aged grandfather. The rest of the cast did a fine job with their roles, especially Ja'net Dubois and Anthony Lee. I highly recommend this film as it addresses so many important issues that are prevalent in today's society and still manages to entertain rather than only to lecture or to criticize (that is, it won't turn people off by being too preachy).