Shadrach

"My tenth summer in 1935 will never leave my mind because of Shadrach and the way he brightened and darkened my life then and thereafter." So begins this coming-of-age memory film based on the autobiographical short story by William Styron and adapted for the screen by his daughter. But though it's set in the Depression-era South and touches on issues of race, Shadrach is no To Kill a Mockingbird. Harvey Keitel, stars as Vernon Dabney, a cussing moonshining lug whose family used to own one of Virginia's biggest tobacco plantations. Andie McDowell co-stars as his loving, beer-swilling wife. John Franklin Sawyer makes his screen debut as 99-year-old Shadrach, a former slave who asks to be buried on the Dabney plantation where he was born. This is an obvious labor of love that, apart from Vernon's well of obscenities, would be at home as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. It is well-meaning and well-acted, but it does not truly engage the heart, perhaps because the title character seems like a supporting player in his own film. Instead, the focus is on the life lessons learned by ten-year-old Paul (Scott Terra), who is staying with the Dabney's that fateful summer. Optional. (K. Lee Benson)