A Raisin in the Sun - Movie Review Example

Other major characters that have their own dreams and desires that are attached to the money in some way are Benethea and Ruth. Bethea is the sister of Walter Lee and Ruth is Walter Lee’s wife. Their young son’s name is Travis.The updated production is loosely based on the original play. Some of the updating is unfortunate because the feel of the story is altered tremendously. I feel that Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs are woefully miscast in this production. The original story is about a family that was less polished and more real than the one portrayed in this production.

Rashad and Combs are too smooth in their delivery to have credibility as the matriarch and oldest son of a family struggling to get out of the ghetto. Their presence gives the story an air of people pretending (not very convincingly) that they are salt of the earth. Stylistically, the updated feel of the story robs the original of the edginess in the original story. Some of the criticism I feel towards this updated version stems from the way the family reacts to the blatant racism they face from their white neighbors.

The family doesn’t seem shocked or even truly angry. Walter Lee seems to be resigned to this just being the way it is so it’s not worth getting angry about. This cast did not do a good job of emoting the shock and quiet rage portrayed in earlier productions. As a result, the protagonists in the story come off as complacent and even a little smarmy. Reading the book or viewing earlier productions would be better than viewing this most recent effort.