The flashbacks are almost as smoothly subtle as the title of one of the paintings showcased by Billy Dee Williams’s character: Portrait of a Journey.
Comment
02/10/07
Constellation (2007)
00 %
Reviews Counted: 20 Fresh: 0 Rotten:20 Average Rating: 3.3/10
Consensus:
Though earnestly directed, Constellation lacks dramatic fireworks and eventually falls into TV-movie sentimentality.
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Synopsis: Gabrielle Union (BRING IT ON, MOESHA) stars in CONSTELLATION as Carmel Boxer, a woman who loved the wrong man at the wrong time--a white man (David Clennon) in pre-civil rights Alabama. After he breaks her heart by succumbing to societal pressure, she spends a lifetime yearning for the love... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Gabrielle Union, Lesley Ann Warren, Zoe Saldana, Billy Dee Williams, Hill Harper
Reviews
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
This overplotted, emotional dump plods along as if the characters are stuck in the cinematic equivalent of quicksand, never generating any traction because no matter how much everybody vents, nothing of consequence ever transpires.
02/08/07
I'm nodding off just thinking about the long, static close-ups and endless scenes of people walking and sitting and doing nothing.
02/06/07
... the biggest problem is that the insights ... are strictly Hallmark TV movie stuff, an association reinforced by the mawkish visual style and score.
02/05/07
The stage is set for emotional pyrotechnics that never quite materialize, because for all their squabbles, grudges and grievances, they all basically love each other.
02/02/07
There are too many characters too sketchily defined, and some of the relationships are pure contrivances.
02/02/07
Scenes in which little or nothing happens pass by slowly, and the only point of suspense is whether the number of tearful hugs at the end will reach double digits.
02/02/07
A movie whose abundant smarts are fatally compromised by its writer-director Jordan Walker-Pearlman's rudimentary filmmaking skills.
02/02/07
Loosely edited scenes juxtaposed in the most vexing ways and completely disparate motifs blurs Constellation into an image that the Hubble Space Telescope could not sharpen.
02/02/07
Top Critic
Featuring a stalwart cast (many of whom appeared in Walker-Pearlman's 2000 drama, The Visit) and some delicately wrought moments, the film is unable to overcome its soap opera scenario and clunky pacing.
02/01/07
Top Critic
Although the performers -- including Lesley Ann Warren, David Clennon and Rae Dawn Chong -- are pleasing to watch with their semi-improvised encounters, their scenes don't add up to the accumulative glow the filmmaker had in mind.
02/01/07
An accomplished cast that includes Billy Dee Williams, Lesley Ann Warren and Rae Dawn Chong struggles to elevate material that rarely gets deeper than a daytime soap, though it tries mightily.
02/01/07
Top Critic
The narration, intrusive and often unneeded, is interrupted by long sequences without dialogue.
02/01/07
Moody pictures, swollen music and portentous dialogue are all great, but they need to have a narrative propping them up.
02/01/07
Constellation positions itself as a sweeping, multigenerational tearjerker in the style of The Notebook, complete with endless shots of two characters staring meaningfully at one another while gloppy music wells on the soundtrack.
02/01/07
There are no revelations here, no real reconciliations, as nobody really hates each other.
01/27/07
It's tempting to simply dismiss Constellation as a TV movie-quality feature, but such a description nonetheless probably sells TV movies short.
01/20/07
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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