Soul Food

This year's Waiting to Exhale is priced for less than $20, so you can probably splurge on seconds. Though the dialogue is sometimes as heavy as the deep fried dishes served up by Mother Joe (the wonderful Irma P. Hall), most viewers will eat up this richly satisfying drama about a close-knit African-American family whose lifeline is the Sunday dinner table. Vanessa Williams, Nia Long and Vivica Fox star as three sisters whose own domestic troubles and long-simmering resentments reach full boil once Mother Joe is hospitalized. Too many subplots threaten to spoil the broth, but it's refreshing to see a warm-hearted film about family life, black or white. Recommended. (K. Lee Benson)