This review has spoilers in it. I gave this film 6/10 because the script was not bad but there were some scenes in the film that I hated. I think the character of Eve was somewhat likable but the director and screenwriter made her obnoxious in the scene where Eve tells her sister that "she has blood in her pants" which refers to Cisely getting her period. Another scene that made Eve annoying is when she curses at her mother. Granted, the mother in the film is annoying, I think Eve saying "God d**nit" was too awful for a child to be saying on film. What irked me about the film was the ending. The father was lied on by Cisely and she accused him (falsely) of trying to kiss her and make a sexual advance. The mother becomes upset and Eve talks to a "witch" who lives in the bayous to put a spell on her father and have him killed. In the end, Eve finds the truth when she reads a letter written by the father to the mother. What happens? Eve destroys the letter and her father never loses the false stigma of being incestuous. The writer should have given the father some sort of justice. Other aspects of the film that were good are the cinematography and the acting by the entire cast.

Having been a TOTAL fan of Lynn Whitfield and Debbi Morgan for YEARS, I KNEW I would be in for a treat. This overlooked film is indeed a wonder and in time will place among one of the finest movies ever made. It is multi-layered and deals with some extremely sensitive issues all the while painting a beautiful tapestry of African-American life in the Louisianna bayou. For those of you who have not seen it, it deals with the awakening of a father and his daughters one summer and the emotions that accompany this learning. The young Eve is brilliantly played by Smollett and Debbi Morgan gives a knockout performance that you crave to see over and over again. Diahann Carroll works you because her character is not at all glamorous but pivotal to the plot as Eve comes to realize the responsibility of her "gift" and learns the truth of the age-old adage, "Be careful what you wish for, for you just might get it." Samuel L. Jackson is wonderful as usual and perfectly cast. While his character is not necessarily sympathetic, he is totally understandable and for a little girl who worships her father he is perfectly cast. While some aspects of the father-daughter relationship may be somewhat uncomfortable, the director does a beautiful job bringing the complexity of these issues to the screen and I heartily applaud her. This is one that belongs in any movie collection and one where African-American life is celebrated and treated with the utmost respect and honesty. Hats off to a wonderful production!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kasi Lemmons has invigorated and enriched her debut film, "Eve's Bayou", through the use of a thousand details, a strong sense of time and place, outstanding characterizations and a display of energy and cinematic flair that marks an advance on any other film released in 1997. Lemmons works with such piercing fervor and intelligence that "Eve's Bayou" just about transcends its tidy moral design."Eve's Bayou" is as good a compromise of fact and fiction as you could hope for -- and still call it a movie. Lemmons directed this with a single-mindedness and attention to detail that makes it riveting. She doesn't make the mistake of adding cornball little subplots to popularize the material; she knows she has a great story, and she tells it with such realism that feels like we're apart of the Batiste family. This is a powerful story, one of 1997's best films, told with great clarity and acted like a finely tuned powerful fire(bravo Debbi Morgan).

Put Samuel L. Jackson, Debbi Morgan and Jurnee Smollet together and you can expect sterling performances. This trio could make "Conan the Barbarian" feel like one of the great works. Perform from a screenplay as touching and accomplished as the one for "Eve's Bayou" and you can expect wonders. A classically polished drama about family turmoil, repressed emotions and protracted heartbreak, provide one of the finest films of 1997.As for that acting, the central scenes between Morgan and Smollet -- including a brilliant mirror scene -- makes for one the best moments in 1997's cinema. Jackson plays his part with magnificent ease, nobility brimming from his every gesture. The remaining members of the cast are so uniformly great, it completes the sense of seamlessness, like a perfectly realized banquet. Sit down to this and savor the human sumptuousness.