The Visit

Good acting abounds in this drama about a young black man (Hill Harper) incarcerated for a rape he probably didn't commit, and the family and friends who lead him to redemption as he's dying of AIDS, possibly contracted during episodes of sexual abuse while locked up. It's too bad, then, that the directing, by newcomer Jordan Walker-Pearlman, is so awful, and that his music choices are so horrendous. Until the last 15 minutes or so, Walker-Pearlman seems incapable of shooting anything other than a close-up, and the whole "redemption" part of the story (the last third, approximately) is clunkily told. That said, Billy Dee Williams and Marla Gibbs are in fine form as Harper's parents (won't someone please put Williams in a real movie?), and the standout scene is the one in which Harper faces a parole board consisting of Talia Shire, Efrain Figueroa, David Clennon, Amy Stiller, and Glynn Turman. Giving perhaps one of her strongest performances ever is Rae Dawn Chong, who convincingly evolves from skanky drug addict to born-again mom.