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“A Cross to Bear” tells the unflinching and inspiring story of Erica, a would-be dancer with no family connections who finds herself fighting alcoholism and living on the streets with her newborn child after being left by her boyfriend.
In “A Cross to Bear”, we follow Erica, a young girl whose mother is all about the materialistic things in life, especially men with money. She tells her that if she can’t find a man with money, then he’s not a man at all. Years later, Erica (Danielle Deadwyler) is a young woman in her early twenties and dating a wealthy musician named Trey (Karon Joseph). One day, while out shoe shopping, her credit cards are declined and when she confronts Trey, he tells her that he’s tired of her being a “gold-digger” and locks her out of his house.
Shortly thereafter, she discovers that she is pregnant and winds up living on the streets. While staying in a dilapidated old building along with some other homeless people, she puts her baby to sleep in an old cardboard box with a blanket and then drinks herself into a stupor. During the cold night, some of the vagrants start a fire using an empty barrel and inadvertently pick up the box that Erica’s baby is in and throws it into the barrel. The next day she wakes up and when she finds out what happens, she has a meltdown.
Two days later, she wakes up in a bedroom in a nice house with no idea as to how she got there. She has an annoying roommate, Tina (Tamika Tanner) and finds out that she is in an establishment called “Joan’s House”, a facility that helps young female runaways, refugees and vagabonds, which is run by Joan (Kim Fields). She proceeds to tell Erica that she was picked up on the streets, hysterical and brought to the house.
She informs her that as long as she is there, she will not take drugs of any kind or indulge in alcohol whatsoever. Initially, Erica wants nothing to do with the place and runs away but when she realizes that she has nowhere else to go, she reluctantly acknowledges her situation and returns home and slowly begins to get her life back on track. With Joan’s help, she finds a job, meets a new guy and slowly begins a new chapter in her life.
I liked the story behind “A Cross to Bear”, there are so many young men and women on the streets in the world today who have nowhere to turn and in many situations, they end up having to rely on the generosity of others who actually care. But what prevented me from liking the movie even more, was the film’s melodrama. Instead of trying to tell a fortuitous story with good performances and real-life situations, first-time director Tandria Potts relies too much on an overabundance of schmaltz and sentimentalism.
When Erica breaks down, as she does many times during the movie, it’s not enough that this very talented young actress can bring the tears and emotion every single time, it’s the fact that the movie suddenly turns into slow motion with extreme close-ups on Erica’s face and then we get even closer on her eyes. It’s like the director is so happy with her star’s tears that she feels this incessant need to show us over and over again, that she is crying, just in case we missed it the first time. Instead of just letting the drama and emotions flow naturally, Ms. Potts feels the need to dilute it with a dash of superficiality and excessive sentiment.
The one other aspect that bothered me, was the death of the baby. An infant who’s not more than a few months old, if even that, is going to cry a lot but after Erica manages to put the baby to sleep in the box, I found it hard to believe that when the other vagrants picked it up and threw it into the barrel, before the fire was lit, that it made no sounds whatsoever. And even when the fire was ignited, surely the baby would have started crying and screaming but again, nothing. The story here is overflowing with drama but sometimes less is more.
If Erica or one of the others in the room accidentally smothered the baby somehow, I would have believed that more than the fire scene but once again, the director obviously felt that the more tragedy she introduced us to, the better the film would be because of it. And sadly, that was not the case. The rest of the cast were commendable in their performances, especially Ms. Fields, who plays the matriarch of the house who sometimes has to make difficult decisions when it comes to the girls. Although this was Ms. Potts’ directorial debut, she does have an eye for good story-telling and for eliciting good performances from her cast, I just hope that next time she relies more on her ability as a director and her capacity to evoke good performances from her actors and less on visual weightiness.
In stores March 11th
