A competent edition of the familiar formula: oppressed individual or group, with help from outside hero(es), stand(s) up for what's right against local bad guys and (drum roll, dramatic pause, cymbal crash) wins!!! As my wife said, "This isn't a movie, it's TV." . This movie's plot is reliably predictable and the bad guys are thoroughly 2-dimensional so you won't have to worry about missing anything when stepping out for munchies or about any lingering sympathy for the bad guys when they get their oh-so-well-deserved comeuppance. . But Nicole Beharie is nice to look at and the world is in order by the end of the film, so you can spend a couple hours without becoming too annoyed -- or involved.
Review of American Violet
