HOME AGAIN directed by Sudz Sutherland, written by Sutherland and Jennifer Holness, with Tatyana Ali, Lyriq Bent, Stephan James and Fefe Dobson. An eOne Films release. 101 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (March 22). For venues and times, see listings. Rating: NN
After working almost exclusively in television since 2003’s sprightly Love, Sex And Eating The Bones, Sudz Sutherland returns to the big screen as director and co-writer of this drama about three people – one from Toronto (Tatyana Ali), one from New York (Lyriq Bent) and another from London (Stephan James) – deported back to their native Jamaica for various legal infractions.
It’s an ambitious project about a fascinating subject, but Sutherland doesn’t have the budget to pull it off. Home Again looks cheap and feels ragged, giving no sense of how much time has passed from one scene to the next, and the characters are resolutely one-dimensional.
Ali gives her character a bruised dignity that gets her through endless scenes of humiliation, and Bent makes the most of his scenes opposite singer Fefe Dobson, who plays the one unambiguously good woman in all of Kingston. But it’s not enough.
