"Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old."
Eve's Bayou is a 1997 Southern Gothic Black-led drama starring Jurnee Smollett, Samuel L. Jackson, and Lynn Whitfield. The movie was directed and written by Kasi Lemmons, and produced by Samuel L. Jackson.
In 1962, ten year old Eve Batiste (Smollett), named for the founder of their hometown, is the middle child in one of Louisiana's most sophisticated and prosperous Black Creole families: her father Louis (Jackson), is a doctor, and her mother Roz (Whitfield), minds the family. She's the middle of three; her sister Cisely (Meagan Good) is 14 and a Daddy's Girl and her brother Poe is 9 and the baby of the family. Eve often confides in her aunt Mozelle (Debbie Morgan), a sultry fortuneteller; the two are close due to a shared sense of the supernatural.
One night during a party, Eve catches her father having sex with another woman, Matty Moreaux, who is married, and is upset by the revelation and more that she learns about her father. While Mozelle struggles with her own Cartwright Curse dilemma, the family is in for a summer that changes their lives forever — in part because of Eve.
Tropes Present:
- The '60s: The film takes place in 1962.
- Ambiguous Situation: The central plot of the movie. Did Cisely kiss Louis, or did he abuse her? Conflicting accounts are given by those involved and the movie never gives a definitive answer either way. In the director's cut, there is an additional character who sees what happens, but he's mute, so no one else will ever know.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In a rage, Eve goes to Elzora and commissions a curse to be put on her father, saying she's "for certain" that she wants him to die for abusing her older sister. He does, when he's shot to death in front of her by Matty Moreaux's furious husband Lenny. Also coupled with Didn't Think This Through, as she actually meant to obtain a voodoo doll to enact the curse.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Cisely. She sneaks out of the house, goes to the hairdresser and gets a mature woman's haircut despite being told to not leave the house, and in one scene she mouths off to Grandmere and rolls her eyes at Roz.
- Book Ends: "The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old, my brother Poe was 9 and my sister Cisely just turned 14".
- A Deadly Affair: Eve's father Louis, a doctor, is constantly cheating on his wife with the various female patients he makes house calls on. Matty Moreaux's husband Lenny finds out and orders Louis not to say another word to his wife. Louis mockingly says "good night" to her and for it is shot dead in front of his daughter Eve.
- Daddy's Girl: Cisely is very close to her father Louis. Which results in a very messed up blurred line when she accuses him of abusing her and he says she came on to him.
- Exact Words:
- Older Eve (through narration) begins the film by stating the summer she's about to recount is the summer she killed her father. This implies that she killed him herself, but it's shown that her leaking of information about his many affairs — and some voodoo spells — led to Lenny Moreaux killing him in anger.
- An infuriated Lenny Moreaux (who has learned his wife is sleeping around, including with Louis) tells Louis not to say another word to his wife Matty or he'll kill him. [[Louis mockingly says "good night" to her. Lenny shoots Louis dead]].
- Fainting Seer: Mozelle passes out after having a vision and interpreting it as one of the kids getting hit by a car. Turns out Eve was falling because Louis pushed her out of the way of a gun before he was shot to death, and a train just so happened to be passing at that time. It didn't even hit her, it was just nearby.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Louis and Cisely remain skeptical of Mozelle's precognition, despite her proven track record.
- Gossipy Hens: A few women at the Batistes' party in the beginning are this. They are even the rare variety that provides exposition, revealing to the audience that Matty Moreaux sleeps around and that Louis is the best colored doctor in Louisiana.
- Heroic BSoD: Mozelle, after Elzora spitefully tells her that her next husband will die like the other three.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Generally averted. Hoodoo is accurately portrayed but is referred to as Voodoo (albeit by a little girl who probably doesn't understand the differences).
- Hot Witch: Mozelle. She's considered quite attractive and was just as promiscuous as her brother, Louis.
- I Wished You Were Dead: Eve goes to a voodoo priestess to find a way to kill her father in anger after believing he molested her older sister. Soon after, he is shot by Matty Moreaux's angry husband Lenny in front of her.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: While Mozelle, Eve, and Elzora have genuine precognitive ability, whether or not their magic works beyond that is not clearly explained.
- Middle Child Syndrome: How Eve feels compared to Cisely and Poe, feeling like The Unfavorite. This is probably why she developed such a close bond with her aunt Mozelle, as her parents baby Poe and award more freedom to Cisely.
- Murder the Hypotenuse:
- How Mozelle's secret lover dealt with her second husband.
- How Louis dies when Matty Moreaux's husband Lenny finds out about their affair.
- Never Trust a Trailer: One of the promo spots for the movie includes a woman telling Eve, "If you tell anyone, I swear I'll do you harm." It sounded like one of Louis' extramarital conquests seriously threatening Eve if she told anyone about it; in reality it was her aunt, most likely speaking in hyperbole.
- Noodle Incident: It's not said exactly why or what lead to Elzora and Mozelle having bad blood.
- No Periods, Period: Averted. Cisely starts her menstrual period during the movie. A big deal is made of it, including showing her bloody underwear.
- Parental Incest: Whether or not a mild form of this occurred between Louis and his oldest daughter Cisely is one of the central focuses of the film. The theatrical release makes it more explicit that Cisely initiated the kiss with her father and Louis forcibly stopped her, while the director's cut leaves it ambiguous who initiated the kiss.
- Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Louis sleeps with quite a few of his female patients while going around on house calls, to the point that women feign illness just to be alone with him.Louis: Your lungs are as clear as a bell, Stevie. You're going to live.Stevie: Can you give me something for...the pain?Louis: Eve, go play outside. (Closes door) What pain is that, Stevie?*Cue Sexy Discretion Shot.*
- The Rashomon: To some extent, with what happened between Cisely and Louis. Cisely claims her father molested her, while Louis' letter states that Cisely came onto him and he reacted violently. Eve does see what happened with her second sight but it's not clearly revealed, leaving the truth up in the air.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Lynn Whitfield is the only actor in the cast who's actually from Louisiana (born and raised in Baton Rouge), but she's also the only one who neither has a strong (fake) accent nor speaks French at any point in the movie (though it's implied that Roz understands it just fine).
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted. Mozelle uses her powers to help people find missing loved ones.
- Scenery Porn: The eponymous bayou is almost a character itself, along with the large Batiste manor home.
- Show, Don't Tell: This rule is violated when Eve finds an undelivered letter written by Louis to Mozelle, his sister. According to the letter, the two had a heated argument where Mozelle accused Louis of raping Cicely, and Louis wrote her the letter afterwards when he was calm enough to explain his side of the story. It would have been nice to see the argument, since the two siblings had next to no direct interaction in the movie.
- Southern Gothic: The movie is set in Louisiana in the 1960s and focuses on a Black Creole family that's full of secrets, conflict, infidelity, and unclear magic.
- Stepford Smiler: Roz tries her best to keep everything looking happy and normal despite knowing full well her husband is a total whore. Much of the movie deals with her facade breaking.
- Tempting Fate: Matty Moreaux's cuckolded husband Lenny, who is drunk and very angry at Louis after finding out he's been sleeping with his wife, tells him not to speak to his wife again under threat of death. Louis mockingly tells her "good night." He's shot dead in front of Eve for it.
- Too Dumb to Live: Louis. Despite Lenny Moreaux's warning Louis that he'll kill him if he talks to Matty again, he decides to talk to her anyway, teasingly saying "good night." Lenny wasn't bluffing and shoots him dead.
- Wall Bang Her: How Louis and Matty Moreaux get it on in the carriage house.
- Wicked Witch: Elzora is a voodoo-flavored one. She and Mozelle have some unexplained bad blood, and she likes scaring children for laughs.
- Widow Witch: Mozelle, who has gone through three husbands at the start of the movie.
- Unreliable Narrator: The movie's most pivotal scene hinges on the fact that neither Louis nor Cisely remember exactly what happened the night their unhealthily-close relationship went too far.
