Customer Reviews
I Had High Hopes For This Movie 
2008-01-01
I was going to buy this off of Amazon but something told me to rent it first and I'm glad I did. This could have been a real good movie with a better script. The acting was superb; I was so excited to see Rae Dawn Chong, but other than that I was so NOT impressed with this movie. I'd have to watch it twice to really figure out was going on because the story is so all over the place you just really have no idea whats going on. Only thing is, it's so boring I couldn't even bother to watch it again. Honestly, I was quite angry by the time the movie ended. I'm not going to discourage anyone from buying this, but I will encourage you to rent before you buy. And if you're still intent on buying then please watch the movie and try not to be distracted by other things because it deserves attention.....ugh!!
This movie is certainly being removed from my shopping cart.
Total Disappointment...not worth watching 
2007-09-21
At first glance given the cast line up, I thought Constellation would be a great movie. However, The characters and the set were the only good parts of this film. As for the storyline, it is totally all over the place. Whoever wrote this movie seemingly had a bunch of ideas and just threw them into one movie with no order or smooth transition from one scene to the next. The movie jumps around too much and you have no idea why this scene is following that scene. Totally unorganized and poorly written and directed. The storyline is difficult to follow from all the inconsistencies in the plot, and I never really saw a love story develop like the cover described. I just got it as a rental and I want my money back!
Jumbled but a moving film 
2007-09-03
First off thos movie had an excellent cast with a hard job of connecting the people in this movie. It took me a while to know how and why the people were connected. It was a moving story of the family of Caramel Boxer. Her life, love, and hurt were presented in a sad, but tasteful fashion. I want to give this movie 3 and 1/2 stars because it was emotional, driven, and beautifully written, but the scenes were jumbled and not inspiring. I will have to watch it again, because I see that the director wanted the movie to be like a constellation. You may only see one star (person), but they are apart of the whole constellation (family). The quotes from this movie were amazing. I am going to add them to my facebook page. Be patient with this movie and you will not regret it.
I would very much like to have had a soundtrack to this movie. The songs were moving and excellent.
Don't waste your money 2007-08-31
Another film with alot of hype. I wish I could get my money back for this one too. Script was missing something. Acting was alright.
History lesson 
2007-08-29
Constellation
I enjoyed the movie because of the time period it was made in.
I don't like to watch racism movies, but I liked the story and Billy Dee Williams.
I liked the lesson of forgiveness.
Choose Another Constellation. 2007-08-26
Constellation chronicles the lives and loves of an African-American family in the deep South as they are forced to come to terms with a tumultuous past marked by an unrequited interacial affair. The film explores the way in which the family patriarch must confront his demons amidst the changing racial fabric of society and his own family.System Requirements:Run Time: 96 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 024543429135 Manufacturer No: 2242913
A pleasant discovery...... 2007-08-14
I just happened to stumble upon this movie while strolling through Blockbuster. I loved the message of unconditional love and forgiveness which was conveyed throughout the movie. And I do feel that the songs were very much appropriate and even moving. This is one of those few movies that I can watch more than once and still feel as though I've learned something new about life and love each time.
Melodious 2007-07-29
I rented CONSTELLATION and hadn't considered reviewing it. While looking over the reviews, I wanted to add my two cents.
CONSTELLATION is a great movie about family, loves and forgiveness. Carmel Boxer, played by Gabrielle Union, narrates her life story. She begins by telling you about a love she shared with a white soldier, Bear, during the time when it was clear that blacks and whites shouldn't mix. As the film goes on you realize that the family is gathering to mourn the loss of Carmel and it's apparent that times have changed as her younger brother, Helms, played by Billy Dee Williams, was married to a white woman and their daughter married a white man. While times have apparently changed, Helms and his daughter are both dealing with so much hurt from the past. Will this family ever recover?
CONSTELLATION has a wonderful cast and it's a movie that you can watch with the entire family. I recommend to all.
uneven but moving at times 2007-07-15
"Constellation," which begins in 1940's Alabama, tells the tale of a secret, forbidden love between a black woman named Carmel and a white soldier named Bear, whose romance is cut short when he is shipped overseas to fight in the war. Flash forward fifty years to the funeral of Carmel - who never married after breaking up with Bear - which serves as the pretext for all the principal people in her life to gather together to air out their grievances and to thrash out the personal relationship problems that have haunted them all their lives. The participants include her emotionally distant brother and his two ex-wives; her two adult nieces and their respective men folk; and Bear himself, who, despite the fact that the two of them were kept apart all their lives by the restrictions of a racist society, has decided to pay not only for the services, but to put all these people up in one of the swankier hotels in Huntsville, Alabama.
Though there are a goodly number of insightful, touching moments in "Constellation," the movie probably would have been more effective had the screenplay (by director Jordan Walker-Pearlman) not tried to cram so many different characters into such a relatively short space of time (the movie runs barely over an hour and a half). Yes, I understand that the theme of the movie is all about how we form "constellations" with the people who are most important to us in life, but speaking strictly in narrative terms, much too often, the genuinely compelling travails of one character are shunted aside to make room for the far less interesting problems of another. Moreover, the romantic relationship between Carmel and Bear, which is supposed to function as the emotional cornerstone of the movie, is never made all that convincing. We are TOLD that these two people are in love with each other, but we aren't made to FEEL it. In addition, Aunt Carmel is portrayed as such a wise and ethereal earth-mother presence even after death that she is essentially robbed of her own individuality and humanity as a character.
Still, there is much that is good in the movie, starting with the performances of Billy Dee Williams, as a man incapable of making emotional connections with the people in his life, and Rae Dawn Chong, as the daughter who has the most trouble dealing with this reality. They are ably abetted by Lesley Ann Warren, Zoe Saldana, Melissa De Souza, and Hill Harper. The movie also boasts a flavorful soundtrack, filled with an eclectic mixture of musical styles, ranging from classical to hip hop to spiritual. The Huntsville setting also provides a refreshing change for audiences weary of seeing New York, Los Angeles and Chicago constantly being recycled in film after film, as if they were the only urban centers moviemakers had to choose from.
The movie does lay its message on a bit thickly towards the end, employing heavy-handed speech-making and rather obvious symbolism to get its points across. It really doesn't need to go to all that effort, since the viewers could probably figure the themes out on their own given half a chance.
Yet, although "Constellation" is a decidedly mixed bag as far as family and social dramas go, it has enough elements of quality to make it worth checking out.
"Constellation" Shines with the Brilliant Beauty of Its Namesake 
2007-07-11
It is interesting to note that the movie CONSTELLATION was first screened in 2005, just after the Academy Award-winning CRASH. And like "Crash," it provides a penetrating look into how race relations have influenced the American character; but un-like "Crash," it gives much more credit to the role that love has played in developing that character. Director-writer Jordan Walker-Pearlman opens his film with a quote from Jeffery Seaver in which the author observes that between love and death, "Love is more powerful and lasts longer." The film "Constellation" attempts to prove that point by tracing the history of an interracial relationship and its painfully mixed impact upon the lives of the couple involved as well as their family and friends.
Set in Huntsville, Alabama, the movie starts around World War II when a very bold young black woman named Carmel Boxer, played with effecting simplicity by Gabrielle Union, and a young white soldier named Bear, played by Daniel Bess, defy social convention and the law by pursuing a secret romance. With her younger brother Helms Boxer acting as their look-out, they enjoy brief times together hidden by the cover of night; until Carmel decides to visit Bear in broad daylight as his platoon is preparing to deploy. That decision proves devastating when her lover is ordered to walk away from her and board his train, leaving Carmel behind in a room where several white men assault her. We do not see an actual gang rape but the implication is clear enough and so is the bitter aftermath. We come to understand that aftermath some 50 years later shortly following Carmel's death as family members and friends--Black and White--gather to mourn her passing as well to make some kind of peace between each other.
Veteran actor Billy Dee Williams plays the now mature Helms who, unable and unwilling to cope with his country's racism, has made a life for himself as an artist in Paris. The price of doing so, however, has been the loss of a viable relationship with either of his daughters, and, two apparently failed marriages. Relationship is a key word for this movie because the "Constellation" referred to by the title more than anything else is a constellation, or grouping, of deeply intimate interactions. Relationships between lovers, between a brother and a sister, between friends, between Blacks and Whites, and between the past and the present. Walker-Pearlman weaves these relationships together and explores their human depths with sheer mastery set to a mesmerizing score of America's classical music forms, including jazz, gospel, American classic, folk, and rap. In his vision of America, specifically the U.S., racial antagonism comprises only a fraction of what has bound Blacks and Whites together. They have also been bound by shared culture, history, tragedies, triumphs, and blood.
Plum acting roles are rare for veteran black male actors but that of Helms Boxer is a perfect fit for Williams, who actually is an accomplished visual artist as well as an actor. He finds himself in good company with a constellation of bona fide stars that include: Lesley Ann Warren, Rae Dawn Chong, Clarence Williams III, Hill Harper, and Zoe Saldana.
Recent high profile interracial marriages might lead some to feel that "Constellation" squeezes a bit too much drama out of the subject. But anyone under that impression might consider that the last laws officially barring interracial marriage in the United States were just taken off the books, in the year 2000, in the very state where this movie is set: Alabama. One of the great triumphs of the film is its ability to acknowledge the agony of past prejudices while celebrating the triumphs of family and love in the here and now.
by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
and The Harlem Renaissance Way Down South
