Southern charm, with a twist
“Blackbird” is an odd duck, a Southern melodrama that aspires to be a sensitive coming- of- age story, with some humor mixed in. Sometimes it doesn’t soar the way it should, though it remains engaging most of the way.
The story concerns Randy Rousseau, a Christian choirboy in Mississippi who has an eye for other boys, despite his pleas to Jesus to put an end to his erotic dreams, not to mention added laundry chores. His prayers seem futile, particularly when he sets eyes on handsome jock Todd and aspiring filmmaker Marshall, an older man of 21 with a trailer park past.
Further complicating Randy’s life is his mess of a mother, Claire ( the formidable Mo’Nique), a devout woman who’s become mentally imbalanced since the disappearance of her young daughter. No one in cinema these days can lash out like Mo’Nique. No one. ( A tip for young closeted men: Don’t make out in front of your homophobic mother’s house. Just don’t.)
“Blackbird” loses some of its power when the melodrama goes a notch or two overboard, and when it tries to juggle numerous themes and subplots, including a child abduction, teen pregnancy, exorcism, various love interests, two school productions and a few too many dream sequences.
It’s no accident that the best performance comes from the understated Isaiah Washington as Randy’s deceptively sensitive father. It also would have been nice to see more of Gary L. Gray, as Randy’s friend Efrem, whose sweetness and humor belie his unhappiness.
Director Patrik- Ian Polk makes the ending a little too pat, but he makes us root for these characters to be happy and for their world to be a better place.