But OK. Let's start with the plot.
The action is set in a one-whore town somewhere in the south. The movie begins with the execution of a black man, and it is easiest to describe the main characters and plot relative to this execution. On one side of the electric chair is the man's wife (Laticia/Halle Berry) and 9-year old, obese, ugly son. On the other side of the chair is a middle-aged security officer (Billy Bob Thornton/initially a racist), his twentyish son (a sympathetic/unracist security officer), and his aging father (a cold-hearted racist and former security officer).
In the first twenty minutes of the movie, the following happens:
--it is established that BillyBob and his father are racists by the way they treat a couple of neighboring black kids....likewise it is established that his son is not.
--the black man to ve executed meets with his wife and son, and after is graphically electrocuted.(Nothing is ever said about why he is being electrocuted. The reason for the abstention is either 1) it doesn't matter, the death penalty is wrong absolutely or 2) it doesn't matter, he wound up in that position so he must have done something to deserve it. I think the movie makers thought they were doing 1...but as the movie progresses, you start to wonder.
--the younger security officer has to stop to throw up on his way to leading the black man to his execution. Billy Bob is disgusted with him/and attacks him for ruining the executed man's last walk.
--Later at home, Billy Bob's son pulls a gun on his father, and then shoots himself.
--Halle's son is run over on the road (hit and run) and dies in the hospital. Billy Bob happens to be driving along when this happens and, given that HIS son just died and he's having some kind of internal revolution about his role in this death, he stops and helps Halle get her son to the hospital, and then drives her back home. He tries to comfort her, but she replies that nobody gives a damn and nobody will even try to find her son's murderer.
At this point, Billy Bob gives up his prison job and buys a gasoline station; Halle's life detriorates into a waitress job that doesn't pay enough for her to live on...so she gets evicted. Billy Bob starts an affair with Halle, buys her a car, names his gas station after her, invites her to move into his house, and puts his racist dad in a retirement home. At no point does he attempt to find her son's killer...that whole thread just kind of disappears.
So, of course, one way to see this movie is: Middle aged racist white male has change of heart after death of son and "marries" the wife of black man he is responsible for killing. Racism is defeated; happy ending. (By this time you have forgotten the ugly obese black boy, having been treated to extensive footage of gorgeous Halle having sex with sensitive, potent Billy. The two points made here is that 1) Billy can fuck for a long time and 2) Billy is willing to go down on a woman.)
The other way to see this movie is: "Middle aged reformed racist white male can do a much better job of satisfying and supporting gorgeous/sexy black woman who just wants to "feel good." In fact, he can do such a good job that she is willing to forget about her husband and her child (both black males). It seemed to me, in short, an embarrassing white male fantasy that simply defied common sense. (If you think I'm wrong, ask yourself WHY her son has to be killed, other than the fact that her falling into her husband's killer's arms would simply NOT work./be credible if a kid was still around.)
If this movie had been made in the sixties, the resolution would have depended on Billy finding the child's killer. THAT would have expiated his killing the father and Billy would have earned his wings or rather place in Halle's bed. But this movie had nothing to do with justice, the death penalty, or healing racism. Its high point consisted of some very hot sex during which Billy pointedly goes down on Halle, who pointedly has a very good time, after which he pointedly nuzzles up to DOUBLE CHECK that she has had a good time and that he didn't "hurt her"? (Hurt a woman during oral sex? HOW?) I mean, why not just get a sledgehammer and whack the viewer over the head a few times: LOOK viewer this racist slob is willing do "demean" himself by going down on a black woman and then is SO sensitive that he comes back up to check that she's OK....So, you see he's not racist, he's not a misogynist, he's the fucking GREAT WHITE HOPE.
So, that's why I thought it was racist. My nine-year old daughter just thought it was a bad movie. She liked the little black boy the best and didn't understand why he was made to disappear.
Joanna