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Life cycle of the spirit

A free spirit becomes a fulfilled woman in Their Eyes Were Watching God, but the metamorphosis of a soul is underscored by symbolism that can be a bit heavy-handed.

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published March 6, 2005

	[ABC photo]
	Halle Berry, as Janie, opens the film explaining, “There’s two things everybody got to find out for they selves. They got to find out about love, and they got to find out about living.”

If it seems like tonight's television presentation of author Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God lasts a lifetime, it's because it actually spans three "lifetimes."

That's the point of the 1937 novel that inspired the Oprah Winfrey production - the three lives of Janie Crawford as she grows from lost teen to subservient wife, before she finally finds herself and her place.

Actor Halle Berry, as Janie, opens the film explaining, "There's two things everybody got to find out for they selves. They got to find out about love, and they got to find out about living."

This is not light fare. It's not the usual made-for-TV movie. It's hard to watch in parts. It moves deliberately, if not swiftly. But there's plenty of transparent symbolism along the way to help.

Moments of rebirth are hammered home at critical moments. First, as an innocent girl in white, Janie bathes in a river. She bathes again in black as a widow after losing her second husband. And with her third husband, facing her final, most difficult transformation, she's washed by the waves of a violent storm.

Does Oprah have to spell it out? If nothing else does it, the caterpillar Janie holds to her face should clue viewers in:

The story is about growth and rebirth. Even if things get ugly at times, have faith. A butterfly will emerge from those who endure. It's the kind of hope and optimism viewers have come to expect from Oprah.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is set in Hurston's hometown, Eatonville, near Orlando. The town remains, according to the Florida League of Cities, the oldest municipality in America incorporated by African-Americans.

The story follows free-spirited teenage Janie as first she's married off to a successful older man, Logan Killicks, (played by Mel Winkler) in a union that her grandmother hopes will bring the girl stability and standing. Janie has no love for Killicks, and she yearns for more than farm living.

She leaves with new husband Joe Starks (Ruben Santiago-Hudson), a man of wealth who builds Eatonville from struggling outpost to booming community. She becomes the mayor's wife, but for that, she sacrifices her youth. More whack-you-in-the-head symbolism abounds as an expensive, but restrictive, dress her husband buys leaves marks like prison bars on Janie's skin.

When Starks buys a piano, he tells Janie it's not for playing. It's for looking at. (Hint: remember that.)

When Starks dies, Janie feels liberated and yearns for a chance to discover who she is. She falls for a drifter named Tea Cake (Michael Ealy), who teaches her she doesn't need to be taken care of: She needs to take care of herself.

Tea Cake plays the piano, before they embark on an adventure to the Everglades and are swamped by a hurricane.

Eyes is an ambitious project, tackling a novel that has been analyzed by scholars for decades. But even strong productions can miss the complexities of a novel. Viewers never experience the jealousies of small-town life that bring Janie down to earth when she's married to Starks. And when Starks' insecurities collide with Janie's growth, the film can't prepare viewers for the explosive end to their relationship the way the novel does.

Years of yearning are summed up with Janie's explanation, "While I was living a good life, it was Joe's life, not mine."

Yet, even though the film is slow-moving, it glosses over too much.

For fans of Halle Berry, who spiraled down from her 2001 Academy Award for Monster's Ball to this year's Razzie "award" for Catwoman, this chance to shine is a good thing.

Berry does an admirable job holding Eyes together. She's appropriately directionless and pretty as a teenager; serious and upstanding as the wife of an important man; strong and determined as hardship forges her into the woman she longed to be.

For fans of easily digestible drama, this film may be difficult. There is still a lot to take in.

For fans of Hurston's novel, this film may be difficult. There's just so much taken out.

Chase Squires can be reached at 727 893-8739 or squires@sptimes.com

REVIEW: Oprah Winfrey Presents: Their Eyes Were Watching God, tonight from 9-11:30 on WFTS-Ch. 28.

[Last modified March 3, 2005, 10:57:04]