
DATE: Monday, September 29, 1997            TAG: 9709280005

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   55 lines

TASTY FAMILY DRAMA SERVES UP WARM FEELINGS

EFFORTS TO HOLD together an embattled African-American family are at the center of ``Soul Food,'' an entertaining soap opera that seems better than it is because there are so few movies similar to it.

Big Mama (wonderfully played by the luminous Irma P. Hall) has held the noisy crowd together for four decades by staging her Sunday dinners, complete with fried chicken, cornbread, smoke-cooked ham, and peach cobbler.

The family could use all the help it can get. Vanessa L. Williams (the former Miss America who has added the middle initial) is the family success story - a lawyer. She's tired, though, of being asked to bankroll the others' folly and she doesn't pay enough attention to her husband (Michael Beach). He wants to be a musician rather than a lawyer.

When a sexy cousin (Gina Ravera) comes to call, Vanessa had best lock up her husband.

She's always at odds with her middle sister, played by Vivica A. Fox of ``Independence Day.'' Younger sis, played by Nia Long, is an ambitious hairstylist who is married to an ex-con, played by Mekhi Phifer. He can't get a job, although he's trying.

The film is not nearly as hard on men as the feminist ``Waiting to Exhale.''

The story is narrated by Brandon Hammond, a more natural child actor than usual.

When Big Mama is downed by diabetes, things get a little predictable and overly sweet, but no matter. Few films attempt to picture black Americans as family members who have everyday problems such as these. It is an entertainment that deserves support and, indeed, Hollywood businessmen will be watching it closely. Several efforts to make ``serious'' movies about African-Americans recently have suffered unfortunate box office doldrums. If ``Soul Food'' can't get at least a moderate crossover audience, does it mean that we'll be back to the wisecracking, obscenity-laced comedies and hood-drug noise? One hopes not.

``Soul Food'' is not quite in the epic league of a ``Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored'' but it still deserves to be seen.

And, besides, it's very entertaining. ILLUSTRATION: CHUCK RODES

From left, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long and Vanessa L. Williams star in

``Soul Food.''

MOVIE REVIEW

``Soul Food''

Cast: Vanessa L. Williams, Irma P. Hall, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long,

Michael Beach, Mekhi Phifer, Brandon Hammond

Director and Writer: George Tillman Jr.

MPAA rating: R (language, some nudity)

Mal's rating: ***