Night Catches Us (3 Stars)

Anthony Mackie & Kerry Washington in the movie Night Catches Us

Surely the gentlest American film ever made about home-grown revolutionaries, writer-director Tanya Hamilton's "Night Catches Us" is not long, but its rhythm forces audiences to pay attention to what its superb actors express non-verbally, and to measure the weight of the characters' past lives.

In other words it is not a commercial picture. It is merely a good one.

The flag-strewn iconography of the nation's bicentennial year, 1976, establishes the atmosphere for this North Philadelphia-set story.

Anthony Mackie, the still water at the center of "The Hurt Locker," plays the mysterious Marcus, a former Black Panther who has been away (for a while we don't know where, or why) for four years. He has returned to the old neighborhood for his father's funeral; his brother (Tariq Trotter of the Philadelphia band The Roots), now a Muslim, says he's no longer welcome.

Before long someone spray-paints the word "SNITCH" on Marcus' black Cadillac.

The film explains that label in due course.

Hamilton fixes most of her narrative on Patricia (Kerry Washington, never better, more beautiful or more relaxed), herself an ex-Panther, now a civil-rights attorney raising a 10-year-old daughter. Marcus and Patricia share a history, and as "Night" fills us in regarding the specific relationships between the characters, the film becomes a supple portrait of a community.

Mackie's one of the shrewdest actors in movies today, and while his character is dangerously recessive in dramatic terms, Mackie and Washington make the most of their courtship dance.

Hamilton's location work presents a neighborhood out of time, still unsteady from the shock of the 1960s. Racist cops have their version of "keeping the peace"; the residents, meanwhile, have other ideas.

Hamilton's script is not quite up to her visual sense, but this is a strong calling card of a feature, photographed by David Tumblety. I'd see it again for the shot of the fireflies in the grass, while the lights of a squad car flash in the background and the slow trudge of a cop's feet is captured in the foreground.

MPAA rating: R (for language, some sexuality and violence).

Running time: 1:38.

Cast: Anthony Mackie (Marcus); Kerry Washington (Patricia); Jamie Hector (DoRight); Wendell Pierce (Det. Gordon); Amari Cheatom (Jimmy Dixon).

Credits: Written and directed by Tanya Hamilton; produced by Ron Simons, Sean Costello and Jason Orans. A Magnolia Pictures release.

Night Catches Us Movie Review - Anthony Mackie & Kerry Washington