‘Sophie’: Well-Made Morality Tale

Here’s how the Lifetime channel’s press release for tonight’s movie, “Sophie & the Moonhanger,” begins: “The wife of a Ku Klux Klan leader must choose between her husband and his horrifying secret life or protecting her loving and loyal housekeeper.”

Yet another “Driving Miss Daisy” view of yesteryear race relations through white eyes?

Nope. Not by a long shot. The relationship between Klan wife Bonnie (“Home Improvement’s” Patricia Richardson) and her black housekeeper Sophie (Lynn Whitfield) is only one facet of this well-made, moving film, set in the segregated South of 1955.

Created by Sara Flanigan (“Wildflower”), co-written with Judi Ann Mason and directed by David Jones, this sensitive drama could more accurately be described as a love story about a man and a woman who refuse to be the victims of ignorance and racism.

Pretty, gentle Sophie--a single mother with two small children, an irascible mother (Ja’Net DuBois) and a longtime job as maid and baby sitter to Bonnie--is courted by Holt Jessup (Jason Bernard). When they marry, Holt puts his life savings into a home and auto repair business, earning the arrogant wrath of local Klan members, led by Bonnie’s husband Ray (David Andrews).

Unsubtle, but effective, the film depicts the Klan’s twisted use of religion, intimidation and violence; children taught to hate through rhetoric and observation; friendship limited by inequality; domestic abuse and decent people in denial.

This is clearly a morality tale, but a richly human one, with depth and texture, its message interwoven into a celebration of family, marriage and commitment to principle.

Richardson deftly submerges her sitcom persona in her portrayal of a woman struggling with disillusion and conscience. The film, however, belongs to Whitfield, who is luminous and poignant as Sophie, and to Bernard, an unforgettable combination of tenderness and strength.

* “Sophie & the Moonhanger” airs at 8 tonight on Lifetime.