The Waterfall

Phanésia Pharel’s THE WATERFALL is a mother/ daughter story.

Bean (Natalie Paul) has come back to look after her Haitian mother, Emi (Patrice Johnson Chevannes), after Emi ended up in the hospital.

Bean seems to have it all: a doting fiancee, a fancy salary, and the fast track to partnership at her law firm.

Emi is delighted with all her daughter’s successes. Now to make her life complete she wants Bean to set a date to get married and start giving her grandchildren.

Is this what Bean wants? Bean is a people pleaser. She does what her mother wants. She does what her fiancee wants. When is it her turn to do what she wants? When she finally decides it is time, she disappoints one and all.

The acting between these two women is superb.

Natalie Paul as Bean has the difficult role of trying to make everyone happy while she isn’t. What she wants most is a forever friend and a sense that she belongs. But those are hard to come by when whites don’t accept her because she is black and the blacks don’t accept her because she is Haitian.

Patrice Johnson Chevannes as Emi is one of my favorite actors. She always bats a thousand percent. She is smart, funny, perceptive, and always mesmerizing.

Emi was a hard-working nurse’s aide but now all her effort goes into trying to be a friend and mother to Bean. She’s feisty and mischievous and knows how to get the best out of life. She wishes her daughter could feel that way too.

Emi even tries to conjure up a magical waterfall from her hometown that provides answers to prayers. Bean tries, but she has lost her good angel.

The Waterfall will barrel you over.

MAJOR HAPPY FACE