Writer Maya Angelou, perhaps inspired by Chekhov's play "Tri sestry", penned this talky, stagy teleplay about a ne'er-do-well black woman in her forties who shows up on the doorstep of her childhood home after some 13 years of estrangement from her family. Reuniting with her two sisters, who still live in the house willed to them by their demanding father, she instantly opens up old wounds and hurts from the past. Angelou, who also co-produced with director John Berry, sets a solemn tone right from the start, what with Diahann Carroll in love with a married pastor (who's been dipping into church funds to further his political career!) and Irene Cara acting like a (somewhat-overage) boy-crazy teenager. Rosalind Cash's Freida, then, is like a breath of fresh air. Cash overrides the poetic pretensions in Angelou's dialogue, and even makes the writer's pedantic introductions sound natural. She gives the movie a bit of heart, even if the scenario itself is rife with the kind of theatrical sentimentality which may work wonders on the stage but rarely comes across on television.
Review of Sister, Sister
Sister, Sister
(1982 TV Movie)
A black-American variation of Chekhov? Not quite...but Rosalind Cash is excellent
2 July 2011