Taking his audience to Jamaica with a dark film about survival director Sudz Southerland brings Home Again to home entertainment. Now on DVD the heart rendering movie has a core of very good acting that makes the dramatic script forceful and fascinating.
“Between 1996 and 2001 changes in the immigration laws of the US, CANADA and UK made it easier to deport individuals for lesser criminal offenses. Jamaica now has over 34,000 deportees, more than seven times its prison population. Many of these deportees left Jamaica as children and have no connection to the island”. –Director Sudz Sutherland.
The film opens with three people getting deported back to Jamaica from countries where their laws are explicit about their crimes. 21 year old Everton’s stay in Britain is over after 19 years and his appeal has been denied. Living in New York since he was four the 28 year old Dunston finds himself on the wrong end of the law with no choice but to be deported back to Jamaica where he was born. From Toronto comes Marva a mother of two who was brought to Canada at the age of 3, but due to a drug smuggling charge her only way to avoid a long jail term is to accept deportation and leave her children behind.
Arriving in Jamaica they find the island country has become a prison all its own. The Kingston area has been run down and the crime rate has risen to a high level with most people in fear of their lives. Everton finds his new life interesting and gets himself in the midst of a carefree people he never knew. After some time however, he gets introduced to the hard life on the streets. Dunston gets connected to the Jamaican mafia where he becomes a hit man headed for a dark road in life. Marva has connections in Jamaica and she slides into a life among the natives, but is driven by her need to be reunited with her children.
Director Sudz Sutherland shows the harsh side of Jamaica far from the tourist driven economy of the more wealthy sides of the island nation. He even avoids the better area of Kingston that attracts vacationers each year looking for the upscale nightlife. Focusing on the underbelly of the country where most of the low level income people live, he shows how crime and depravity has taken hold of the once peaceful Caribbean island. It’s a slap in the face wake-up call that shows how easily it is to get caught up in drugs, prostitution and street gang power.
Sutherland moves his cast in and out of danger showing performances that equal big time mainstream Hollywood. Stephan James as Everton illustrates how one can go from the good life to one of drugs, fear and despair living on the streets. It’s realistic in a society where death is just a gunshot in a moment of misunderstanding. Gang violence puts Dunston in the middle of a power struggle with a marvelous performance by Lyriq Bent showing how easy it is to get sucked into a life of crime when you don’t have loved ones that care. But the most gut wrenching performance comes from Tatyana Ali as Marva the mother who has been separated from her children and will do anything to get them back. She shows the sorrow and brutality without pity that comes with her deportation due to drug trafficking.
The cinematography plays a big part in the film showing the dank confines of an overpopulated city who tries to continue to exist in a community of angst riddled people. Taking his camera into the seedy side of town and to mountain shacks we find poverty on many levels with the eye of the camera focusing on those who deal with crime for a living. The island is shown far removed from the Bob Marley song that has attracted tourists over the years “Don’t Worry Be Happy”.
Home Again has not been rated by the MPAA but contains violence, nudity, forced sex, abusive language and drug use.
The video quality is par with most DVD’s, but if you play the disc on a Blu-ray player you may get a touch more of the HD presentation. The film has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 that gives the letterbox effect, but on a 16×9 television the widescreen displays the whole picture without any loss. Some scenes are a little grainier than others, but it may be the affect that director Sutherland is going for.
The sound is very good and conversations are heard clearly. However, the use of Jamaican slang is hard to understand, but the filmmaker does have subtitles for most all the local talk.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Tatyana Ali, Eugene Clark, K.C. Collins, Lyriq Bent, CCH Pounder and Fefe Dobson
Director: Sudz Sutherland
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 1 hr 44 min
Video Release Date: November 12, 2013
Original Film Release Date: April 2, 2013
Language: English
Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Subtitles: none
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RJL Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
