A current Netflix release written & directed by Tyler Perry (my first film of his I've ever watched, someone pop a cork on some ripple somewhere?). Told in flashback from the present where a white politician in the South is mounting a campaign, a series of letters soon arrive at his doorstep which prompts the story proper to be told as the letters are read. Focusing on a family who run a juke joint, we have a pair of brothers (sired from different fathers) one, Joshua Boone, an accomplished singer while his brother, Austin Scott, (favored by the still present drunk of a father) a master behind the trumpet which comes to a pass when their mother, Amirah Vann, tends to favor Boone, giving him leeway at every turn & to make matters worse is Boone's burgeoning relationship w/a light skinned girl, Solea Pfeiffer, who's own mother hopes to pass her off as white wants no part in having her daughter's romance w/Boone so she concocts a ruse to have them separated insinuating Boone was inappropriate w/her sending Boone packing to Chicago to forcefully follow his dreams along w/Scott (who's developing a heroin habit) & their manager, Ryan Eggold (from TV's Amsterdam) but years pass & when unanswered letters (from Boone to Pfeiffer) & an opportunity to visit come up, the drum beat of fate starts a-tapping as the tragedy we know is coming arrives. As stated previously, this is my first foray into Perry's world (the trailer looked good but hey don't they all!) as a writer/director & while his story is laudable (I heard in an interview it was a story he wrote years ago but sat on for years until he felt it could be made properly) I felt maybe a limited series (he has several running on the OWN network) may've been a better avenue for this yarn which has many characters, situations & truths unfolding which diminishes the film's power since a lot of story points/decisions by certain players were sped along just to get to that gut wrenching finale.
