Claudine

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R L D This movie was always one of my Mom's favorite, also her name sake. i have very fond, childhood memories of watching this movie with my Mom and brothers. Dianne Carroll and James Earl Jones were two of her favorite actors. 🙏🏾🕊️Although my Mom and brothers have passed on, I pray that whenever I do get to watch this movie that I'm never watching it alone. GOD bless their dear souls. 💜🙏🏾🕊️ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/13/24 Full Review Camero W Great story. The ending did catch me off guard Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/20/24 Full Review Al B A movie with a heart and a soul. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/13/24 Full Review steve d I found it too hard to pull for its characters. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Most, if not all, believe this movie is a reflection of poor, black Americans in the early 70s. I have news for you, this movie is a reflection of ALL poor Americans in the early 70s. Look beyond ethnicity to see the story being told. Which is, being poor and living on the other side of the tracks is a criminal sentence of its own. Unless you're corporate welfare, then we readily open our wallets. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member In 1974 only three African-American actresses had been nominated for Best Picture but Diahann Carroll would become just the fourth actress to achieve this feat for her performance in this film. While I am all for representation I can't say that I would have nominated Carroll as although she is perfectly fine in her role there are several false moments in her performance and she is never completely convincing. I would have preferred to have seen Ana María Picchio nominated for her performance in The Truce (1974) or even Blythe Danner in Lovin' Molly (1974) but Carroll isn't one of the worst nominees of the 1970s she's just lackluster. The film itself never quite comes together as it's central romance is not compelling and the family drama is something we've all seen before. Single mother of six Claudine Price, Diahann Carroll, must work as a cleaner and receive welfare payments in order to support herself and her children. She must hide the fact that she works from social workers because if they discover this fact they will not provide her with the same amount of money and she will struggle to raise her children. She falls in love with rubbish collector Rupert Marshall, James Earl Jones, who pays child support to various mothers across the country but her children are hostile towards him. Marshall agrees to marry Price and the children begin to warm to him but he abandons them when he is ordered to pay higher child support payments. Eventually Price's eldest son Charles, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, tracks down Marshall and convinces him to return to his mother with whom he reconciles. The opening scenes of the film show some promise as we are introduced to a flustered mother trying her hardest to support her children but when her ‘romance' with Marshall begins, in the first 15 minutes of the film, we feel a certain amount of dread. Jones is a fine actor and gives a decent performance in the otherwise dreadful Field of Dreams (1989) but as a romantic leading man he flounders lacking the humor of Tom Hanks or the suaveness of Henry Fonda. He and Carroll lack chemistry and most of their scenes together feature dialogue that feels like a knock-off of The Goodbye Girl (1977). We don't particularly care when Marshall runs off and abandons this family as the anguish that Price felt when previous husbands left her is never really set up and we don't enjoy our time spent with the two characters. Unlike the aforementioned 1977 film this movie's conclusion is disappointing as the two get married and then playfully jump onto the back of a police vehicle. What should be fun and euphoric feels flat and dull, we never really knew these characters and so their marriage means very little to us. The film, billed as a romantic "comedy", fails to wring any laughs out of it's subject matter as we are meant to titter at the children hurriedly hiding their possessions from the social worker but this isn't enough, in the era of Blazing Saddles (1974), to inspire even a half-grin. The exchanges between Marshall and Price have little charge to them and the attempts to establish any sort of flirty banter between them fails. When the film tries to be serious it is equally unsuccessful as it skirts the issues it focuses on and is rather obvious when it does dare to make the occasional statement. If the film suggests that single mothers should receive more money from the government then it should have addressed this more clearly instead of letting us hear a sassy social worker yell at Price over her decision to have a boyfriend. Romantic comedies that address social issues are not rare as Down With Love (2003) addresses sexism and Goodbye Again (1961) addresses ageism but this film doesn't have the originality or charm of those classics. I wouldn't recommend seeing this film despite the talent involved as Carroll and Jones are not enough to propel the film forward and the screenplay is subpar. If you are looking for a great romantic comedy centered around African-Americans watch The Best Man (1999) which features great performances and hilarious gags. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Claudine

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