Love Come Down

An expansion of Canadian filmmaker Clément Virgo's own 1993 short Save My Lost Nigga Soul, this brooding familial melodrama centers on the love-hate relationship between twentysomething half-brothers Neville (Larenz Tate) and Matthew Carter (Martin Cummins), both of whom are struggling to come to grips with what really happened twenty years ago when their now imprisoned mother murdered her live-in lover. Aiding the recovery effort are Soul Food tube star and popular R&B singer Deborah Cox, in the role of Neville's love interest, and in an extended cameo, Sarah Polley, as a beatific nun who helps Neville battle his inner demons and newfound addictions. Virgo skillfully weaves several (too many?) dramatic story threads together, and, for the most part, does so without undue hand wringing. While there's nothing new or particularly gripping here, and Virgo's fast and loose use of flashbacks saps the film's forward thrust, this above average urban drama is solidly acted and directed, and should play well, particularly with urban audiences. Recommended. (S.C. Sickles)