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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Poitier emoted, Diddy twitched, 25 February 2008
Author: rpniew from chicago, Illinois

There is nothing wrong with remaking and recasting the Lorraine Hansberry masterwork; we shouldn't pay undue fealty to the original cast. I'm sure Olivier's, Jacobi's, and Branaugh's Hamlet would suffer in comparison to the original Burbage performance. Plays are meant to be inhabited by different people as the generations pass. Therefore, there is nothing wrong, in theory, to the making of this version.

This rendition is superior to the 1989 "American Playhouse" performance, which was poorly paced and largely overacted. The female parts are perfectly cast and performed. The same cannot be said, unfortunately, for the male parts.

P. Diddy, or Sean Combs, or whatever name he is going by these days, simply does not have the acting chops to bring out the complexities of the Walter Younger character. Where Sidney Poitier and, to a lesser extent, Danny Glover, were able to grasp hold of the anger and frustration of the man, Mr. Diddy twitches and frowns. He performs as if a lowered head and furrowed eyebrows are the makings of a great performance. I was reminded of Hayden Christianson taking the complex evil of Darth Vader and turning him into a naughty teenager. Combs plays Walter like a street punk.

Sean Patrick Thomas, as George Murchison, fares a little better. He does what he can with what is essentially a superficial and somewhat stereotyped character.

The greatest error is the miscasting of John Stamos as Lindner. He gives the character a harder, more outwardly racist edge than John Fiedler, who created the role. Stamos drips hatred and prejudice just a little too much -- it is easy to ultimately say no to him just to tick him off. Fiedler, working with Hansberry, had a much better grip on the role -- not a man who is outwardly racist, but as one who is sadly misinformed, ignorant (meaning, simply, not understanding), and afraid. Stamos tries to chew up just a little too much scenery.

David Oyelowo, as Joseph Asagai, is the most well cast male in the film, hitting every note required by the character.

The female cast fares far better. Phylicia Rashad recreates and improves upon the role of Lena Younger, breaking the "Mammy"-isms of the earlier performers. Audra McDonald certainly will not usurp Ruby Dee as the definitive Ruth Younger, but does an excellent job in a part that requires an extreme range of emotion.

The greatest revelation in the film by far is Sanaa Lathan as Beneatha. Beneatha is a key character in the play and is relatively ignored in the original, and not particularly well played in the 1989 version. Playing a character substantially younger than she is in real live, Lathan is able to exhibit the hope, anger, childish "know-it-all" attitude and sadness of a young woman in her position. Unfortunately, the screenwriters chose to omit her lovely, sad second-act monologue about her desire to become a doctor; this section was excised in the original film and restored in the American Playhouse version and should have been present here.

Overall, this is a worthwhile film, but imperfect in many ways.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Individual's transformation is the theme of this adaptation, 18 May 2008

Author: Clinton Yuen (yuenw003@hawaii.rr.com) from United States

It is said that an author must have a measured amount of distance (in terms of time) from her subject matter before she can write about it. This is to give her time to digest and let the the incident settle in her mind and emotion so that she may do justice to her work. Lorraine Hansberry's work was written in the 1950's at the height of urban white discrimination and censorship against blacks. This adaption is done some 50 years later at a time when the arts are freer to touch on sensitive issues and at a vantage point when we can see how the white American mindset and value system have played themselves out over the course of 50 years.

Lena Younger is the wise matriarch of a black household residing in an apartment in the urban black section of Chicago in the 1950's. The family is blessed to be humbled and to have a loving and trusting relationships within the household. The well-being of the household is shattered by the expectation and subsequent arrival of a small fortune, a $10,000 life insurance payment to Lena. The expectation of the money is seen as seed money by Lena's son, Walter Lee. Walter Lee has a dead-end job, a chauffeur working for a snobbish white boss. The expectation of the money spawns Walter Lee's imagination as seed money to achieve economic freedom through a business of his own. Berneatha, Lena's daughter, is an artsy, spontaneous type person who looks forward towards using the money to finance her education to become a doctor, a technical discipline. Ruth, Walter Lee's wife, is expecting and sees any additional money as just another way to get by. Lena would like to use the money to provide for the practical future needs of the household and doesn't personally need any funds for herself. The story points out how each of the mentioned character's self-interest agenda, as shaped by the American value system of the time and still applies today, is pursued at the expense of destabilizing the family as result of the $10,000. The money becomes the distraction that takes attention and gratitude away from the most important of family fortunes: the gift of humbleness and the appreciation of the simplicity that harmonized, and lent contentment to the household for all those years before the subject of money ever came up.

The social commentary is that America, to a black person and other minorities, is a land of barriers. The system presents barriers to blacks and other minorities who genuinely just want to fulfill their life's purpose, contribute their talents to society and only ask to make a decent living at that. Money or capital is a way to break through these barriers to enter a profession (doctor), business (liquor store) or to retire. The ironic twist is that the very barriers established by the white people to oppress minorities provides for the very education that nurtures character, humbleness and eventually wisdom. You can see that in the genuine, and heartfelt performance by the actors in this movie who dramatize the sensitive social issues covered by Hansberry's work some 50 years later. With a distance in time of 50 years, it can be said that this sincere, from the heart interpretation of Hansberry's work truly does justice to her intended message.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Fine job, for the most part, 4 March 2008
Author: vchimpanzee from North Carolina

In 1959 Chicago, the Younger family lives in a small apartment with cockroaches and other problems, although they have done their best to make it look nice.

Walter works as a chauffeur for a white family that doesn't seem to acknowledge him as a human being. He is tired of "Yassir" and "Nossir" and wants to start his own business with friends Bobo and Willy.

Walter's mother Lena works as a maid and is loved by the little girl she cares for, but she can quit that job now since she is getting a $10,000 life insurance check after the death of her husband.

Walter's wife Ruth does people's laundry and raises their son Travis. Walter's sister Beneatha also lives with them, sharing a room with her mother. Travis sleeps on the couch in the living room.

What is the best way to spend the insurance money? Beneatha could use it to go to medical school. She is in college now, and she has two potential romantic partners--George, who comes from a rich family and is about as black as Carlton Banks, and language professor Joseph Asagai, who wants to teach Beneatha about Africa.

But Walter wants to open a liquor store. Imagine how that will go over with his devout Christian mother.

Lena sees a great opportunity to move into a better neighborhood. But the people next door to the house she finds are all white and don't want blacks moving in.

For the most part, this movie came across as the quality production ABC told us it was. The characters are strong and have values, but the question is how much will circumstances cause them to question those values.

Phylicia Rashad will surely be mentioned at Emmy time. She was outstanding, showing so much emotion when the time came to do it. It's the first time I ever saw her play a truly black character. I had to look closely to make sure it was actually her. Up until now, she has played attractive, young-looking women who could have been any ethnic group but happened to be dark-skinned.

Audra McDonald also did a very good job, and she was quite good-looking even here, with such a nice smile.

David Oyelowo showed so much passion for his heritage and for teaching the woman he cared about to have the same passion.

Not to take anything away from her performance, but Sanaa Lathan just got on my nerves. Perhaps that means she was doing everything right.

Sean Patrick Thomas did a good job showing another side of black culture; in the 1950s most blacks did not have money, and despite having dark skin, he seemed out of touch with the problems of his race, quite content with life.

Sean Combs didn't quite give the impression of quality that ABC had led me to expect. He was good, but almost always so bitter. I can't blame the writing, because Sidney Poitier played the role, and we all know he would have done a magnificent job with it. But Combs was good enough.

Bill Nunn had one fine scene as Bobo. He was in several other scenes, but he lived up to the promise of this film.

I liked John Stamos a lot on "Full House" (in fact, he was the reason I started watching the show in the first place). I liked him here. But surely not everyone will. He seemed out of place in this type of production. It was like watching Uncle Jesse facing Aunt Becky and trying to weasel out of having behaved in a racist way, mainly by explaining it was everyone else who wanted him to do it. But he was not threatening at all.

This is certainly worth seeing.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Heartfelt and Superb!, 26 February 2008

Author: Rugrat1fn from United States

I can honestly say I enjoyed this movie, I enjoyed the 1984(?) version with Danny Glover and was hoping to catch a treat with this film. A treat a received greatly.

Yes this film had many flaws, as does every movie. So I shall give the flaws then the bright side of the film Flaws: I was bored the first half of the film, it moved in a little slow, and Sean Combs performance didn't help. I felt that the cast excluding Sean Combs was superb and was full of real emotion and strength. Combs was trying to hard to act, when he should have let it flow and have a real feeling for the character and not just try to over act. He does have his moments though, but those moment are quickly cut back to his not letting it flow and not having a true feeling for the character.

Bright Side: The film was a delight. Raw emotion and strength from the leading ladies and the leading men(excluding Sean Combs). Phylicia Rashad was full of emotion and pride, that you instantly love her and feel for her and the pain she goes through. Audra McDonald is superb and excellent actress who is going somewhere, you also feel for her and go through struggles and emotion. Beneatha Younger (Sanaa Lathan) is spunky, yet naive. You love her and many of my young generation can relate to her.

Overall: The acting is brilliant coming from the cast, again excluding Sean Combs yet he does have moments. Direction is great, and the feel and emotion and strength is just excellent 8/10 -Izzy

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11 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
DIDDY? Oh, no he diddn't!, 25 February 2008

Author: ram-30 from Dillon, Saskatchewan

P-Diddy's performance in the film is P-thetic. Apparently tired of saying the same words night after night on stage has dulled Mr. Combs into a stunned stupor to which his bland expressions and monotone delivery attest. He seems at home with "da Homies" (Willy Harris and Bobo) at "da Club"(The Green Hat) but he can't switch his New York gangsta talk with a Southside Chicago accent. The fact that Willy Harris is a dead ringer for Snoop Dog didn't help. Mama was right; Walter does look (and sound) "like somebody's hoodlum". Mama, by the way, played by Phylicia Rashad, was amazing. She looks younger than other Lena Youngers on screen which is good as Walter is only 35 so Mama is probably not the white haired old lady directors like Daniel Petrie tried to make her look. Besides the youthful look, Rashad gives a very heartfelt performance making me think that Bill Cosby did the world a disfavour by holding her back from honing her serious side. Audra McDonald, in my opinion, is the best performer in the group. As wife Ruth, she really hits home with her every emotion.When she cries, we want to cry with her although at times it seems she's just crying at the atrocious performance by her lesser half, the Puffster. Rounding out the cast is David Oyelowo as the Nigerian Asagai (Oyelowo is, himself, Nigerian) and John Stamos as a handsome Mr. Lindner (alas, the not so handsome John Fiedler is no longer available for the role). I watched this film continually thinking what heights it might have reached if someone more competent was in the Walter role. Maybe they can use Computer Generation to insert Sidney Poitier's performance. That would be great.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
This 2nd TV Remake of the Lorraine Hansberry classic works thanks to meticulous direction and the powerhouse performances from three exceptional actresses..., 26 February 2008

Author: Isaac5855 from United States

A RAISIN IN THE SUN is the 2nd television remake of the 1961 film based on the play by Lorraine Hansberry and the recent Broadway revival about broken dreams that centers on the Younger family, a hard-working black family living in a cramped Chicago tenement in 1959, to whom we are introduced to the day before the family is to receive a $10,000.00 insurance check and the tensions that arise from the plans that the young patriarch of the family has already made for money that really isn't his. Lena Younger (Phylicia Rachad) is a strong,God-fearing woman who has worked as a housekeeper to a white family for years but has decided to retire because of her impending windfall (the check is only coming because of the death of Lena's husband). Walter Lee Younger (Executive Producer Sean "Puffy" Combs)is a chauffeur who wants to use Lena's money to start his own business. Walter's wife, Ruth (Audra McDonald)is a strong-willed woman who finds herself constantly torn between her husband and her mother-in-law, often at the expense of her son Travis(Justin Martin). Beneatha (Sanaa Lathan) is Walter's flighty, free-spirited sister, struggling to find her identity as a black woman, full of more dreams than she can handle, which are further complicated by her relationships with two completely different kind of men. This story first hit theaters in 1961 with Sidney Poiter as Walter Lee, Ruby Dee as Ruth, and Claudia McNeill as Lena. Combs has brought the cast of the highly successful Broadway revival (which won Tony Awards for Rachad and McDonald) to the small screen and aided by the detailed direction of Kenny Leon, has opened up the story for the television screen without losing the story's intensity or intimacy. Phylicia Rachad is nothing short of brilliant, in the performance of her career, as Lena, the proud matriarch struggling to hold her family together and hoping that this money might help. Audra McDonald, who has won 4 Tony Awards for her work in Broadway musicals and won a fifth for this role on Broadway, proves that she is as powerful an actress as she is songstress as she brings a depth and substance to the pivotal role of Ruth that I have never seen before. Sanaa Lathan also offers one of her best performances as the bombastic Beneatha, a walking talking hurricane of emotions struggling to find who she is in a world where she feels like she is suffocating. Sadly, Sean Combs had some big shoes to step into, taking on a role originated by Sidney Poiter and for me, his performance just doesn't work...there is an emptiness to the performance that implies Combs really doesn't understand a man like Walter Lee. Combs also seems to be unaware at times that he is now in front of a television camera and not in a Broadway theater and that certain facets of his performance have to be taken in and controlled, which can be partly blamed on the director I suppose, but this problem only exists with Combs, not his leading ladies. Poitier brought a dignity and maturity to the role of Walter Lee that Combs is missing...he plays the role as a petulant child, diluting a lot of its power. Despite Combs problematic performance, this film stands as a worthy tribute to its predecessors thanks to the mostly effective direction by Kenny Leon and three extraordinary performances from Sanaa Lathan, Audra McDonald, and especially Phylicia Rachad.

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
This Raisin Is Delicious and Beams in the Sun ****, 26 February 2008

Author: edwagreen from United States

Outstanding version of the Lorraine Hansberry classic.

Sean Combs is just terrific as Walter, a young frustrated black, who has an opportunity to make it in a prejudiced world but is victimized by his own people. Bitter, he is ready to take the white man for a ride when the latter is willing to pay him off so that he and his family don't move into an all white neighborhood.

Combs interpretation of the role is marvelously depicted and interesting to note. Unlike Sidney Poitier, he brings a common touch to the part. He is an embittered militant who is willing to strike out at anything to attain the American dream.

Congratulations to Phylicia Rashad and Audra MacDonald for their brilliant performances.

This production works because it brings out that prejudice and taking advantage can occur within your own group.

In addition, we see the hard work ethic shown to be a realistic solution to societal problems.

John Stamos brings the right image as the representative of the community trying to get the family not to move in. His supposed outreach is immediately tempered by utter bigotry and he moves well with this excellent ensemble cast.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Still Worth Watching!, 27 February 2008

Author: Sylvia Marciniak (sylviastel@aol.com) from United States

Lorraine Hansberry's play is forever being produced whether on stage in it's original drama or in a musical. A Raisin in the Sun is a theatrical classic. It stars Sean Combs in the leading male role that Sidney Poitier immortalized in the film with Ruby Dee. In this version, Phylicia Rashad plays the family matriarch and Audra McDonald plays Ruby Dee's character. Those two performances are stellar and they both won Tony Awards for their performances on Broadway. The television film version is equally worth watching but it's too long at times. John Stamos plays the man who wants them not to move into their neighborhood. The film version is for today's audiences but it's too long despite it being faithful to the original.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A Raisin in the Sun marks my farewell comment for Black History Month, 29 February 2008

Author: tavm from Baton Rouge, La.

This entry of the 2008 TV movie version of Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun" that just aired on ABC four days ago, is my final entry on African-Americans in film and television in chronological order for Black History Month. Nearly the entire cast of the recent Broadway revival of this still-resonant drama-Phylicia Rashad, Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and Bill Nunn-reprise their roles here. They're all great as well as Sean Patric Thomas, David Oyelowo, Paul Stephen, and, as Carl Linder-the man who tries to buy the Youngers out of their new house, John Stamos. Rashad and McDonald, both of whom won Tonys for their performances, should repeat at the Emmys this fall. Combs, usually known as Puff Daddy/P. Diddy/Diddy, holds his own with the experienced veterans here. Scenes such as Rashad slapping daughter Lathan after the latter denounces God or Combs doing his "shufflin' Negro" act near the end to everyone's disgust still packs a wallop. And writer Paris Qualles, whose work I just watched on The Rosa Parks Story, and director Kenny Leon open up the play's locations and expand on the dialogue considerably well. What else can I say except it's been a wonderful journey watching how much African-American performers and filmmakers have evolved over the nearly 90 years with nearly 100 listings here at IMDb during this special month. With the writer's strike still in effect at the beginning of it, I thought this was as good a time as any to celebrate some of the most acclaimed and popular celebrities America and the world has ever known. With that, I'll just say thanks for anyone who's read this and my other BHM comments and gave me favorable and even not-so-favorable marks as a result. Oh, and feel free to read and mark my other non-BHM comments as well!

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This Raisin Shines!!!, 11 May 2008
Author: aharmas from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Without going into any specifics by any particular member of the cast, it should be established that all pieces in this adaptation work very well together. This includes every minute detail in the production which recreates the period flawlessly to the richness of the performances by all the female actresses who edge their male counterparts in quite remarkable ways. The difference between the genres is how naked their emotions are, and how amazing their range is. In the end, it is not that Diddy didn't quite meet the expectations but that he hasn't quite gotten to their level yet. If he added a bit more vulnerability to his character or expanded the range, it would have soared. As it is, it pretty competent, and it doesn't lessen from the overall impact of the piece because once you take everything and everybody else in consideration, this is a very good film.

Race was still a pretty touchy subject back in the 50's and 60's and a lot of what we take for granted was still not quite within the grasp of many African Americans. There were soul that managed to shelter themselves from the horrible prejudice that shattered many a spirit, and there were many who still saw the abyss as unconquerable. Dreams were shattered and buried, and most of the time, bitterness was the end result.

A family of African Americans has their dreams within reach, and what should be seen as a godsend, becomes a divider, as everyone in this family places his or her own dream ahead of everyone else's, and in the middle of this chaotic situation, we have a steady force that might not be able to solve this problem. As the story develops, she manages to find a solution, but this is promptly derailed by one of the family members who can't see straight.

In the meantime, the family slowly finds their way to seeing one of their dreams come true, only to see it endangered by the insecurities of their contemporaries. It is both the best and worst of times for people as change is in the horizon, but it is still quite hard to achieve. Amazingly, the wisest words come from some who come places where the opportunity to dream is for most just a dream, but it is this perspective that makes someone realize that all change must come from within and not hang on the luck of others. It is time to take responsibility for their own changes and decisions.

It is a lovely film, strong,insightful, powerful, and as thought provoking them as it was when it was first released as a play. It is a film to watch, study, and treasure.

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