Earthly Lessons for Relatives Left Behind in ‘Kingdom Come’

“Kingdom Come” is at once uproarious and serious, and it abounds in that combination of warmth and emotion that is summed up in the word soul, a rare quality outside African American movies.

This joyous film, which confronts pain, loss and transgression with love, wisdom and forgiveness amid inspired humor, has it all. The sensational ensemble cast, headed by LL Cool J in a breakthrough performance, is anchored by Whoopi Goldberg, with dazzling comic star turns by Jada Pinkett Smith and Loretta Devine. Its soundtrack is rousing, with a score by Tyler Bates and all its songs written and produced by gospel rhythm and blues artist Kirk Franklin. Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, Cedric the Entertainer, Darius McCrary and Richard Gant all contribute mightily to make “Kingdom Come” a rich pleasure.

In the fictional Central Valley town of Lula, Raynelle Slocumb (Goldberg) is sitting at the kitchen table in her spacious farmhouse, reading a letter to her husband Bud from his widowed sister Marguerite (Devine) when Bud (outside camera range) keels over dead. When the Rev. Hooker (Cedric), a shrewd, chunky man overflowing with florid unctuousness, asks Raynelle to tell him about Bud--whom he did not know well--in preparation for his funeral service, she replies evenly, “He was as mean as a snake. And surly.” That has him already reaching for sure-fire glittering generalities like “a quiet man of inner strength.”

Asian filmmakers have already taken a seriocomic look at the ordeal and hypocrisy of the elaborate traditional funeral, and now it’s “Kingdom Come” director Doug McHenry’s turn. He works from David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones’ adaptation of their play, “Dearly Departed,” a script so adept you would never know it wasn’t written directly for the screen.

Raynelle soon is swamped with a houseful of volatile relatives to commemorate the passing of a husband for whom she lost all feeling decades ago. Living nearby is her son Ray (LL Cool J), an auto mechanic and former problem drinker whose lovely wife Lucille (Fox), consumed with the formidable challenge of making everything go nicely, has just suffered a miscarriage. An inward man with a lot of unresolved anger toward his late father, Ray finds himself struggling to maintain his sobriety. Coming from some distance is his brother Junior (Anthony Anderson), a feckless, philandering would-be inventor, his ultra-shrew of a wife Charisse (Pinkett Smith), and their three rowdy sons.

Also arriving from another town are the exuberantly religious Marguerite and her handsome son Royce (McCrary), whose response to her tiresome puritanical tirades is to aim for a slacker’s life on welfare. Toni Braxton’s Juanita, the wife of Bud’s rich nephew Wayne (said to be too busy to attend), shows up, needling Charisse, who swears she could have snared Wayne herself (and all too clearly rues letting him get away.) Gant is Ray’s rugged middle-aged boss, quick to put the make on both Marguerite and Raynelle.

Marguerite and Charisse are such outrageous, nonstop pains in the neck that you couldn’t stand them if they weren’t so hilarious--and were we not eventually able to see the goodness underneath. McHenry has given Devine and Pinkett Smith the confidence to go over the top because their roles and his direction allow them to reveal these women in full dimension.

Indeed, McHenry’s direction is a triumph of rigorous control tempered with affection. Tone in this material doesn’t merely shift, it swoops roller-coaster style, yet McHenry maintains so smooth a ride that laughter careens into pathos seamlessly. “Kingdom Come” doesn’t turn Marguerite and Charisse into caricatures; it pokes loving fun at them, and this allows them to fit well into the same film with the essentially serious--yet sly--Raynelle and the deadly serious Ray. Goldberg knows and trusts in the sheer power of her presence. Raynelle’s calm strength permeates and stabilizes the film, and in a quiet exchange with her son Ray she sparks the insights in him that have the potential to transform both mother and son. Goldberg’s underplaying in these crucial moments allows LL Cool J to emerge as a fine actor of great promise.

The look and feel of the well-paced “Kingdom Come” is just right, with a special nod to costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, who has worked with several of the film’s key people on other projects. She makes the clothes of each character help define them to a degree that is exceptional and revealing. Lucille’s dresses are as demure as her personality, whereas Charisse and Juanita are gowned stunningly as the highly competitive glamour girls they are. Jamison-Tanchuck’s pieces de resistance are reserved for Marguerite, who arrives with a clutch of her Sunday-best outfits, bold in style and color and topped by the elaborate hats favored for generations by African American ladies for wearing to church.

That you can envision the great pioneering educator Mary McLeod Bethune wearing one of Marguerite’s wonderful hats is meant as a compliment to Jamison-Tanchuck, who does not let her vivid imagination outrun her innate good taste. Indeed, Jamison-Tanchuck’s sizable contribution to “Kingdom Come” is indicative of its larger achievement, which is to demolish false piety and uphold dignity while holding community and tradition in a loving embrace. “Kingdom Come” is a movie to be cherished.

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* MPAA rating: PG, for thematic elements, language and sensuality. Times guidelines: Suitable for the entire family.

‘Kingdom Come’

LL Cool J: Ray Bud Slocumb

Jada Pinkett Smith: Charisse Slocumb

Vivica A. Fox: Lucille Slocumb

Loretta Devine: Marguerite

Whoopi Goldberg: Raynelle Slocumb[

A Fox Searchlight Pictures presentation of a Bates Entertainment/Turman-Morrissey Co. production. Director Doug McHenry. Producers John Morrissey and Edward Bates. Executive producers Rochelle Bates and Lawrence Turman. Screenplay David Dean Bottrell & Jessie Jones; based upon their play “Dearly Departed.” Cinematographer Francis Kenny. Editor Richard Halsey. Music Tyler Bates. Original songs Kirk Franklin. Costumes Francine Jamison-Tanchuck. Production designer Simon Dobbin. Art director Bruton E Jones Jr. Set designers Marcos Alvarez, Erwin (Mick) Cukurs, Shelley A. Wallace. Set decorator Karen Agresti. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

In general release.