'Kings of the Evening' offers sanitized view of Depression
Andrew P. Jones' period drama "Kings of the Evening" believes in the basic goodness of people - black and white - along with second chances and respect for human dignity and pride.
It also believes in heavy-handed speeches, one-dimensional characters and an act of presumably fatal violence that doesn't mesh with the PG-rated drama's relatively sanitized view of the South during the Great Depression. (The first one.)
"Kings" centers around "oswenka," a South African contest in which men put on their finery and parade before a judge who picks a winner, crowned King of the Evening. This is a mere side-note in the plot, which mostly concerns Homer (a handsome but surface Tyson Beckford), who has just come home from two years on a chain gang for steeling two car tires.
He meets a genteel hustler named Benny (Reginald T. Dorsey), who guides him to an apartment building run by the aptly named Grace (Lynn Whitfield, who's way too smokin' to be playing a middle-aged, matronly figure of wisdom). Homer befriends a lovable hobo (Glynn Turman) and falls for a pretty seamstress (Linara Washington) living with Grace.
Bruce McGill supplies the gruff, insensitive white corporate villain who runs a sweat shop full of good-hearted black and white seamstresses right out of a "Norma Rae" fantasy daydream.
"Kings of the Evening" opens today at the I.C.E. Cinema Chatham in Chicago. (PG) 99 minutes. Rating: ★ ★ ½