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Down in the Delta
Directed by
Maya Angelou
PG-13
1998
1h 52m
Drama
6.9
76%
71%
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In a desperate attempt to change her life, Loretta -- a troubled single mother from a tough Chicago neighborhood -- is sent to spend a summer at her family's ancestral home in rural Mississippi.
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Cast of Down in the Delta
Alfre Woodard
Loretta Sinclair
Al Freeman Jr.
Earl Sinclair
Esther Rolle
Annie Sinclair
Mary Alice
Rosa Lynn Sinclair
Loretta Devine
Zenia
Wesley Snipes
Will Sinclair
Mpho Koaho
Thomas
Anne-Marie Johnson
Monica
Justin Lord
Dr. Rainey
Richard Yearwood
Marco
Sandra Caldwell
Volunteer
Colleen Williams
Tourist Woman
Richard Blackburn
Tourist Man
Philip Akin
Manager
Mary Fallick
Drug Addict
Sandi Ross
Pawnbroker
Barbara Barnes-Hopkins
Prim Woman
Marium Carvell
Prim Sister
Quancetia Hamilton
Gina
Kim Roberts
Isabelle
Michelyn Emelle
Dozing Woman
Johnie Chase
Grinning Man
Andrea Lewis
Cassandra
Nigel Shawn Williams
Carl
Bernard Browne
Diner #1
Alison Sealy-Smith
Diner #2
Eugene Clark
Citizen #1
Chris Benson
Citizen #2
Neville Edwards
Slave Man
Yanna McIntosh
Slave Woman
Troy Seivwright-Adams
Collin
Kevin Duhaney
Justin
Joel Gordon
Jesse 1865 (age 17)
Phillip Jarrett
Jesse 1890 (age 42)
Kulani Hassen
Tracy
DeFoy Glenn
Reverend Floyd
Jeff Jones
Man in Congregation
Carol Anderson
Jesse's Wife
Clinton Green
Soloist in Church
Down in the Delta Ratings & Reviews
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Jeff Strickler
First-time filmmaker Maya Angelou doesn't use any flowery directorial flourishes. She focuses on the story's emotions, capturing them effectively. That turns Down in the Delta into an uplifting saga.
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Down in the Delta is a most heartening experience, and its cast is capable of moving you greatly.
CNN.com
Paul Tatara
Down in the Delta is almost mind-boggling. How can a woman with the kind of insight that Angelou displays in her poetry and other writings not see that she was dealing with a script that spells things out as if it was written with a big, fat crayon?
Baltimore Sun
Ann Hornaday
Fraught with uneven pacing, labored dialogue and a movie-of-the-week plot, Maya Angelou's directorial debut resonates with so much honesty and pulses with so much emotional and historical truth, that it overcomes every technical limitation.
Newsday
John Anderson
The camera movement seems literally to be by the book. But Alfre Woodard is majestic as Loretta, even when she's at her lowest (particularly when she's at her lowest) and Al Freeman Jr, who doesn't work enough, has never been better.
Chicago Tribune
John Petrakis
The material is sturdy but so familiar that it cries out for a director with cinematic fervor to bring much-needed juice to the project. [Maya Angelou] does her soothing best, but the result looks and feels like an ambitious movie-of-the-week.
Orlando Sentinel
Jay Boyar
At a time when so many films strain to be either tragically hip on the one hand or distressingly saccharine on the other, a movie like Down in the Delta is a genuine rarity.
Arizona Republic
Melissa Morrison
Down in the Delta coheres in time for the big finish, transcending what's stale to become genuinely touching as it draws generations of a family together. The performances are hugely responsible. And Woodard as Loretta is the story's beating heart.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Desmond Ryan
In the hands of Maya Angelou. America's most beloved living poet, Down in the Delta gets down to a level of primal feelings and territory that eludes far more experienced filmmakers.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Joe Holleman
The film's best asset is the acting, with strong performances from the ensemble -- especially from Woodard in the role of a woman whose wild ways threaten to ruin her family.
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Woodard is immense as the initially tottering but eventually stabilizing Loretta, eating up the screen with her expressive eyes.
New York Times
Stephen Holden
The movie, which often threatens to disappear into a tub of soapsuds, is elevated immeasurably by the calm, stately performances of Mary Alice and Mr. Freeman. These two fine actors lend their roles a gravity, balance and underlying sense of sorrow.
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
The movie's rhythm is a little off, particularly during transitional scenes. But Angelou has coaxed beautifully natural, unselfconscious performances from her actors.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eleanor Ringel Cater
The picture has its preachy moments as well as its treacly ones, but its sense of family matters, and why family matters, is sure and strong.
Detroit Free Press
Terry Lawson
If Down in the Delta has the eyes-on-the prize pacing and the inspirational lilt of a made-for-TV family drama, it comes by it honestly.
Premiere Magazine
Glenn Kenny
The best one can say about Down in the Delta is that it is, for the most part, an inoffensive, TV-movieish exercise in earnest uplift.
Newsweek
Veronica Chambers
Angelou manages to make the South a character with the ability to heal and mature.
Chicago Tribune
Gene Siskel
Director Maya Angelou, the celebrated author, makes an impressive filmmaking debut by pacing her story slowly enough to make Woodard's transformation credible.
Chicago Reader
Lisa Alspector
Maya Angelou's very deliberate blocking of the actors charges each movement and line of dialogue with emotion, and the expressive combinations of colors and textures in the settings convey a palpable sense of the environments.
Variety
Joe Leydon
Down in the Delta never really transcends the limitations of an intimate, well-crafted and resolutely old-fashioned TV drama. Still, this emotionally involving story of an African-American family has definite crossover appeal.
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