Soul Food

A feast for the eye and a tug at the heart -- that is writer/director George Tillman Jr.s' new film, Soul Food.

An overt desire to please often leaves Tillman relying on force-feeding techniques.

Soul Food aims to be a banquet of feelings, but mostly it serves up tripe.

The steaming platters of fried catfish, macaroni and cheese, sweet corn bread, and black-eyed peas that appear early and often in writer-director George Tillman Jr.'s sentimental family drama should be listed in the credits as costars.

Soul Food serves up family melodrama-cum-comedy that's tasty and satisfying, if not particularly profound or original.

Tillman is tremendously skilled at bridging the vast shifts in tone.

This movie could have sunk to soap opera melodrama. But Tillman really cares about each multidimensional character. As a result, the film resonates.

A heartwarming but realistic exploration of complex emotions experienced by members of the family.

'90s family drama has language and sex.

As warm and funny as it is dramatic and emotionally involving, with fully-fleshed characters brought to life by the strong ensemble acting.