Constellation

This would have been an absolute great series if the "CAL" and the bizarre things happening were explained a bit faster and definitely more clear. Entirely too many wasted episodes trying to get to the point.. "Multiple reality shows" need to explain things quick. Confusion for me doesn't drive the need to watch more... it took me personally a long time with a lot of skipping boring segments to get the point. I have watched it all the way through now without jumping forward, and my skipped segments were still unnecessary. A perfect example was the adjustment bureau. The explaination of bizarre events were done at the correct time and explained to keep the audiences attention. All in all This could have been one great show!... just too many episodes with almost no point accept more deception and confusion. Felt a lot like the sixth sense..... watched half of the theater leave with 20 mins left.... I liked it. But because of the bla parts it will not have a second season. Thats disappointing. Alice in space land could have been a better title! I'll still recommend it to others.....

I watched two episodes thinking this might get better, but it actually got worse. This is something that must have gotten a lot of investment judging from the cast and the special effects, so why did anyone greenlight this story? Jonathan Banks usually has pretty good sense as to what media to be a part of and I expected better, and even more so with Noomi Rapace. I don't give 1/10 ratings very often. To me, a 1/10 review is an unwatchable show. While "Constellation" is not unwatchable in the beginning because it piques your curiosity, it is worse than unwatchable in the long run because it wastes the time it takes to watch a few episodes to realize it is unwatchable and assuming viewers are utter fools. Another really irritating thing is how they draw things out with no reason other than to draw them out. For example, nothing on the International Space Station seems to work or be dependable. I just feel bad that if you don't take my advice and avoid this sad excuse for a science fiction movie you will be wasting your time watching it before you quit in disgust. Sorry ... 1/10.

Constellation "Constellation," which begins in 1940's Alabama, tells the tale of a secret, forbidden love between a black woman named Carmel and a white soldier named Bear, whose romance is cut short when he is shipped overseas to fight in the war. Flash forward fifty years to the funeral of Carmel - who never married after breaking up with Bear - which serves as the pretext for all the principal people in her life to gather together to air out their grievances and to thrash out the personal relationship problems that have haunted them all their lives. The participants include her emotionally distant brother and his two ex-wives; her two adult nieces and their respective men folk; and Bear himself, who, despite the fact that the two of them were kept apart all their lives by the restrictions of a racist society, has decided to pay not only for the services, but to put all these people up in one of the swankier hotels in Huntsville, Alabama. There is much that is good in the movie, starting with the performances of Billy Dee Williams, as a man incapable of making emotional connections with the people in his life, and Rae Dawn Chong, as the daughter who has the most trouble dealing with this reality. They are ably abetted by Lesley Ann Warren, Zoe Saldana, Melissa De Souza, and Hill Harper. The movie also boasts a flavorful soundtrack, filled with an eclectic mixture of musical styles, ranging from classical to hip hop to spiritual. The Huntsville setting also provides a refreshing change for audiences weary of seeing New York, Los Angeles and Chicago constantly being recycled in film after film, as if they were the only urban centers movie makers had to choose from. Yet, although "Constellation" is a decidedly mixed bag as far as family and social dramas go, it has enough elements of quality to make it worth checking out.

When you have family dynamics that are at different levels, you look at this movie in a different light. The way each character is interconnected in good (and not good) ways makes the story line realistic and honest. I app

I had the opportunity to catch Constellation at The Roxbury Film Fest, as the festival's opening night feature and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Everyone might not be interested in familial stories, but we've all had our bouts with relatives of one type or another. The mixture of an extremely talented ensemble cast, the universal theme of family drama and how well the movie was made make this film highly accessible on a variety of levels. For those who are cinephiles, there are a few cinematic twists, especially with the use of flashbacks. Although this definitely isn't an experimental film, I did hear several filmmakers comment afterward that Walker-Pearlman broke a few of the usual film guidelines regarding character and plot set-ups. And might I add they agreed unanimously that it came together well! The cinematography was beautiful and greatly added to the feeling of the film, making the generational impact that much more vivid and touching. Part of the reason why the various pieces fit so well together is because the film has heart. The director was very much invested in making a film that represented authentically the frailty of family relationships in a black middle class family struggling to find peace despite the weight of racism, regret and bitterness that has plagued them for generations in the south. What impressed me most was that I was seeing a movie on the big screen (albeit in one local screening venue) depicting African Americans as emotionally complicated and diverse. I don't mind a comedy, sure we experience gang violence on many levels and we got pimps and hos, but where are black people at in their many skins and dynamic levels? These days seeing a multi-dimensional, black character, let alone the majority of a cast with those qualities, on a wide screen is still revolutionary. I can't wait 'til I can tell people to head to their local movie theatre to see Constellation and later hear they bought it on DVD!

I'm going to be generous here and give it a 3 only because I live in Huntsville and it was great to see how well the city was filmed. That said, this movie was pretty bad. It's like they started off with hardly any script and the director just told the actors to stare at each other meaningfully with a lot of music playing over it. And Billy D. Williams looked like he'd rather be anywhere but in this movie. It's just a mess. I think I could write a script better than the dislodge for this film, and I'm no writer. There is one thing I've seen mentioned throughout the reviews and message boards--everyone is under the impression that the movie begins around World War 2 and actually it seemed more like it was supposed to start out in the late 1950's/early 1960's. While the military was not segregated by then, I'm pretty sure that any troops waiting to board a train would still be segregated in a place like Huntsville, Al. If the beginning of film was supposed to be the 1940's, then Billy D, Lesley Ann & Rae Dawn would have to have been in the 70's and 80's instead of their mid 50's or early 60's. Don't waste your time unless you really, really like the actors because the story isn't very interesting.

A very interesting movie showing the different lives of people as they gather for the funeral of, what would appear to be, the center of their Constellation. Told in small stories one at a time of each character seem to be reasons why they have not, and why some do not, choose love in their life now. I feel most for the man who has arranged the gathering at the woman's request. A white man who loved a black woman in Alabama in the 40's and 50's and could not show their love because of the times they lived in and the place they lived. His is one of great regret at not taking this woman for wife no matter what the world thought. I'm sure there are many stories of beautiful love that got wasted in a time they lived in, what religion and class told them, it is tragic that these things happened. True love, a meeting of souls happens so rarely to let it pass, to not act on it is the greatest waste of what life has to offer.

Constellation" Shines with the Brilliant Beauty of Its Namesake. It is interesting to note that the movie CONSTELLATION was first screened in 2005, just after the Academy Award-winning CRASH. And like "Crash," it provides a penetrating look into how race relations have influenced the American character; but un-like "Crash," it gives much more credit to the role that love has played in developing that character. Director-writer Jordan Walker-Pearlman opens his film with a quote from Jeffery Seaver in which the author observes that between love and death, "Love is more powerful and lasts longer." The film "Constellation" attempts to prove that point by tracing the history of an interracial relationship and its painfully mixed impact upon the lives of the couple involved as well as their family and friends. Set in Huntsville, Alabama, the movie starts around World War II when a very bold young black woman named Carmel Boxer, played with effecting simplicity by Gabrielle Union, and a young white soldier named Bear, played by Daniel Bess, defy social convention and the law by pursuing a secret romance. With her younger brother Helms Boxer acting as their look-out, they enjoy brief times together hidden by the cover of night; until Carmel decides to visit Bear in broad daylight as his platoon is preparing to deploy. That decision proves devastating when her lover is ordered to walk away from her and board his train, leaving Carmel behind in a room where several white men assault her. We do not see an actual gang rape but the implication is clear enough and so is the bitter aftermath. We come to understand that aftermath some 50 years later shortly following Carmel's death as family members and friends--Black and White--gather to mourn her passing as well to make some kind of peace between each other. Veteran actor Billy Dee Williams plays the now mature Helms who, unable and unwilling to cope with his country's racism, has made a life for himself as an artist in Paris. The price of doing so, however, has been the loss of a viable relationship with either of his daughters, and, two apparently failed marriages. Relationship is a key word for this movie because the "Constellation" referred to by the title more than anything else is a constellation, or grouping, of deeply intimate interactions. Relationships between lovers, between a brother and a sister, between friends, between Blacks and Whites, and between the past and the present. Walker-Pearlman weaves these relationships together and explores their human depths with sheer mastery set to a mesmerizing score of America's classical music forms, including jazz, gospel, American classic, folk, and rap. In his vision of America, specifically the U.S., racial antagonism comprises only a fraction of what has bound Blacks and Whites together. They have also been bound by shared culture, history, tragedies, triumphs, and blood. Plum acting roles are rare for veteran black male actors but that of Helms Boxer is a perfect fit for Williams, who actually is an accomplished visual artist as well as an actor. He finds himself in good company with a constellation of bona fide stars that include: Lesley Ann Warren, Rae Dawn Chong, Clarence Williams III, Hill Harper, and Zoe Saldana. Recent high profile interracial marriages might lead some to feel that "Constellation" squeezes a bit too much drama out of the subject. But anyone under that impression might consider that the last laws officially barring interracial marriage in the United States were just taken off the books, in the year 2000, in the very state where this movie is set: Alabama. One of the great triumphs of the film is its ability to acknowledge the agony of past prejudices while celebrating the triumphs of family and love in the here and now.

It did Huntsville, Alabama justice. While not the greatest movie ever made, Constellation does a decent job of showing the south without stereotyping it. Billy Dee Williams has trouble coming to terms with the fact his sister threw her life away for someone she thought loved her. While tense at some points, dramatic at others, I liked this movie because of the location. The story took some time to get into. I've watched it twice now and have taken a liking to it. The acting isn't that good, the dialogue isn't capturing, and the subplots needed a little more work. The movie is still pretty good. It certainly isn't a groundbreaking film piece sure to change the world, but it's a decent "B" movie.

For a person of white decent and growing up in the North before living my life in the South, I found the film to be a step in right direction as far as the storyline. As with anything placed out into public scrutiny, there will always be those who feel it doesn't suit their taste. In the short time being a part of the film, cast and crew, I was allowed to see and feel firsthand the attempts by Jordan and his crew to capture the meaning of and present a subject that at times is too controversial to talk about. Cudos for stepping forward to help us, as a nation, to bridge the gap and clear up the misunderstandings that we allow to cloud our judgment. American's have the right voice their opinions, that is what is great about this country, and am proud to be currently serving to defend this right and equally proud to have been, regardless of how small, a part of this film.