Heading South

Heading South **

"Heading South" tries to be edgy, controversial, romantic, and political, all at the same time, but the end result is boring, unoriginal, and a waste of time and talent. If it weren't for the satisfactory preformances, this film wouldn't be worth a damn whatsoever.

"Heading South" begins with Brenda, and forty-eight year old divorcee who is going on a vacation is Haiti. She bumps into someone she apparantly knows, an eighteen year old Haitian by the name of Legba. She is enchanted by him, and it is obvious that something has happened to them in the past. However, Legba is called away, and Brenda follows him to the other side of the beach, where she meets Ellen, who is a much older woman, and apparantly Legba's lover. Sure enough, Ellen comes to the island for her entire summer every year, since she gets a long vacation from her teaching job. And sure enough again, Brenda met Legba on the island three years ago, when he was only fifteen, and she threw herself on top of him, and got the very first sexually satisfying experience of her entire time. This is said in a shocking monolouge, documentary style, as Brenda's character talks directly to the camera. The writing then was seriously on key. And so, Brenda starts things up again with Legba, and Ellen gets jealous, and vice versa, and there is constant competition between the two women, until it becomes apparant that they really don't know Legba much at all.

The performances are fine. Charlotte Rampling is a creepy woman, shown here, and in "Lemming" from earlier in the year. Karen Young does her part well, and the psychological battle between the two women over this man is handled by them well. However, the story never seems to go anywhere. It meanders, it's overlong, and uninteresting. After a while, enough was enough. The island scenes were beautifully shot, but it's never exactly said what the ladies find so beautiful about Legba, and this is exactly where a moral kicks in. Not only do the ladies not know Legba, but the viewer doesn't either. Towards the end, Legba does things and sees people that make you second quess everything that you thought you knew about it. And this is a true message. On vacation, we meet people, and talk to people, and can even spend hours with them, but you don't really know them. Legba is Ellen and Brenda's escape from their lives, their gateway into something new and unexpected, but eventually, reality comes shining in, and we must all head up back north again. I swear there were undertones about slavery, but I haven't exactly worked on that all the way through.. If there is, however, it would be highly inappropriate. . .