« The summer I killed my father, I was ten years old ». Eve delves into her past and tells the story of her tenth summer – the story of a family trying to survive despite her father’s constant affairs. In an attempt to understand, Eve turns to her aunt, a medium, who shows her how she can make contact with the spirit world. The climax comes when Eve, unable to deal with her secret, contacts a voodoo witch. The film tries to make the most of the Louisiana Bayous, those dead-end fingers of the meandering Mississipi, with its moss-covered trees, to lend this cultural quest an air of mystery. However, the fantastic setting is smothered by over-smooth photography and an excess of violins. Even Jurnee Smottlett’s (Eve) solid performance is insufficient to restore the sense of intimacy needed for such an evocation of a community’s collective memory and feminine power of imagination. What a pity, since actress Kasi Lemmon’s first work as Director is also actor Samuel L. Jackson’s first as producer (he also plays the father) – the joint effort put into such a demanding film was a big risk.
