Midnight Bayou The most annoying aspect to reincarnation is switching over all of your identification.Unfortunately, the returning soul in this made-for-TV-movie has to change more than just his name.Despite his Eastern education, Boston lawyer Declan (Jerry O'Connell) is drawn to New Orleans and purchases a plantation to renovate.Around town he meets a local, Lena (Lauren Stamile), whom he is inexplicably attracted to.As the renovations continue, the mansion's history unravels its self to Declan via vivid flashbacks of a former female resident's murder.Desperate for answers, he seeks the wisdom of Lena's grandmother (Faye Dunaway), a voodoo priestess with past life experience.However, the spiritual truth that Declan seeks will change his life forever.A more mystical love story than what Nora Roberts is known for, this adaptation of her novel muddles in mediocre acting but surprises in the shock-ending department.Incidentally, when you're reincarnated in Louisiana, 9 times out of 10 you come back as a crayfish.Yellow Light vidiotreviews.blogspot.com

what we have to understand is that sometimes what works in books does not necessarily mean that it works on the big screen.. this movie deviates consequently from the book.. i am a Nora Roberts fan and i do understand that many fans like me did not enjoy this movie very much, maybe because there were many alteration of the story.. but we have to take note that the plot remains truthful from its origin.. the theme of girl meets boy afraid to fall in love because of all the pain she went through, mother being the main villain, same as the mother-in law  hundreds of years ago.. and of course solving the mystery of one of the heroine's disappearance.. all in all it was an entertaining movie... one should just have an open mind and feel what the director wants us to feel.. be transported in Lucian and Abigail's time.. feel their love for one another and feel the distaste and hate of Josephine and jealousy and envy of Julian towards Abigail. at the present time, Lina's apprehension to give all her heart to declan was devastating.. i can feel her pain. also she was torn about her mother. hating her for leaving and walking all over her through out her life but at the same time longing for the love a mother should give her child. and of course let us not forget the ever loving, supporting and mystic grandmother... i congratulate the director, the cast and crew for bringing these characters alive... i wouldn't have them any other way...

To anyone who read the book, you will not like this movie...to those who saw the movie without reading the book will not want to read it!! The characters were not well developed, Declan's background was limited to one past relationship & there was hardly anything about his family up north. Lina's character was limited as well and didn't show how she achieved in her life from such difficulties. The relationship between Declan & Lina did not seem genuine or believable.Faye Dunaway was spectacular as always, but sadly not used to her full potential.I'm sorry I watched it since I read the book. I'm not sure if I would have liked it any better if I hadn't read it.

Young college student from Boston, Jerry O'Connell out on some hijinks with friends in New Orleans comes across an old deserted mansion and sees the ghost of a woman there. He feels a real connection to her and the house. Years later, now an attorney, O'Connell moves to the area to start a law practice aimed at making insurance companies cough up what they owe flood victims. But it's more than business that Jerry's got on his mind.He buys the old mansion and has plans to renovate and move in. But he sees some startling visions of the past around the turn of the last century. He makes a connection with Lauren Stamile who also has a connection to the house. She's the great great granddaughter of the woman that Jerry finds out was murdered.Midnight Bayou is based on a Nora Roberts romance novel of the same name, though its characters could have been taken from the works of Tennessee Williams. Faye Dunaway plays the grandmother of Stamile who raised her and she's fine in the part. The really evil one is the prostitute/junkie of a mother Marcelle Baer to Stamile. She is a bad person in the past and present.The film is a cut above most of the Lifetime network productions and recommended for devotees of Nora Roberts.