You be the Critic: "A Family Thing" at the Oak Park Arms

Oak Park Arms presents its popular series “You Be the Critic” at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. The 1996 film, “A Family Thing,” will be viewed and reviewed with radio announcer Dan Kane.

This drama was written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson and directed by Richard Pearce. It stars Robert Duvall, James Earl Jones, Irma P. Hall and Michael Beach.

When the mother of a Scotch-Irish American Southerner, Earl Pilcher (Duvall), dies, she leaves behind a letter explaining how he is not her biological son but the son of a Black American maid who was raped by Earl’s (white) father and who died in childbirth.

The letter prompts Earl to visit his half-brother in Chicago, Raymond Murdoch (Jones). Ray blames the death their mother on Earl’s father and wants nothing to do with Earl when he shows up. As Earl is preparing to leave town his car is high jacked by street thugs, and he ends up in the hospital with nothing but Ray’s contact information in his pocket.

Ray, a veteran Chicago police officer, begrudgingly lets Earl recover in his home as the hospital is too crowded. It is there that Earl meets his Aunt T. (Hall), a loving and blind woman who eventually persuades the family to accept Earl and helps them all heal old wounds.

The Oak Park Arms is a rental retirement community which provides independent and assisted living apartments and a full schedule of activities and services. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay - a weekend, a week, a month or longer.

The event is free and open to the public. Call Jill Wagner at 708-386-4040 or visit the Oak Park Arms website.