[9]

A racist, alcoholic prison guard finds himself falling in love with an African-American woman who just happens to be the widow of a man he helped to execute in this film from Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland). Halle Berry is stunning in her Oscar-winning performance, but so is the rest of the cast, including Billy Bob Thornton as the prison guard, Heath Ledger as his disenfranchised son, Sean Combs as Berry's husband on death row, and Peter Boyle as Thornton's monstrous father.

For a film so full of melodramatic moments, Forster does an admirable job never indulging in the sensation of it — he’s much more focused on the build-up and aftermath, and it’s all anchored in some of the finest, most believable performances I’ve ever seen. The film is a master class for aspiring actors and directors. The Oscar-nominated screenplay is elevated by Robert Schaefer’s beautiful cinematography and a hypnotic score by Asche & Spencer.