A few days after his mother's funeral sixty-something Arkansa mechanic Robert Duvall receives a letter from her, a personal letter entrusted to her pastor to be delivered after her burial. In the letter she explains to her son that she is not infact his biological mother, rather he was conceived as the result of his father's rape of the housekeeper, who was black. His biological mother died moments after childbirth and owing to his surrogate mothers genuine love for her and his coming out of the womb white, he was raised with no knowledge of the circumstances of his birth or his true ethnic heritage.
Duvall's mother also advises him that he has an older half brother who is a cop in Chicago, as a last request she asks Robert to seek out his brother and come to know that side of his family. After a couple days brooding on this Robert decides to honor his mother's request, travels up to Chicago to meet his brother James Earl Jones and come to know his extended black family. At first the two siblings are warry of each other but over the course of the film develop a genuine mutual affection.
Co written by Billy Bob Thorton 'A Family Thing' is sweet, solid and empathetic. An impressive, understated work with a very warm quality. The two leads are famously talented actors but the MVP of the picture is Irma P. Hall as their no nonsense, blind aunt who is determined that these two siblings really get to know each other. This film wisely eschews the cheap comedy potential of its premise and makes this both a character piece and an ultimately hopeful rumination on race relations in this country. The gang banger subplot I could have done without. ***
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