Good vibes danced with anticipation at a casual September lunch at HBO's Century City headquarters before a screening of the urban love story "Disappearing Acts." But as director Gina Prince-Bythewood and others associated with the film settled into their seats to watch the rough cut, the anxiety level rose.
Slipping into a back row was author Terry McMillan, who had flown in minutes earlier from Oakland to see the high-profile cable channel's adaptation of her 1989 novel about the steamy, bittersweet romance of a young black couple. Though she is one of the project's executive producers, McMillan had no direct involvement and was seeing "Disappearing Acts" for the first time.
Prince-Bythewood and the others involved with the film felt good about the project. But still, it was not exactly Terry McMillan's "Disappearing Acts" up there on the screen. The novel's rawness and sexual heat had been turned down a few notches. The leading man was more sympathetic and less self-destructive. The ending had been altered. A brief episode of domestic violence, as well as some of the emotional abuse detailed in the novel, had been deleted.
Those gathered in the screening room knew the opinionated McMillan would be more than blunt about the movie. Shoulders and necks stiffened as the film rolled.
McMillan watched quietly at first as the romance between Franklin Swift, a struggling Brooklyn construction worker portrayed by Wesley Snipes, and Zora Banks (Sanaa Lathan), an aspiring singer-songwriter, ignited, then slowly deteriorated.
The author started talking to the screen. She sniffled and sighed heavily. And as the final credits rolled, she abruptly burst out of the screening room.
"I was crying like a baby," recalled McMillan. "I had to run to the bathroom to compose myself. I finally told everyone, 'I like this better than the book.' It took me back to memories I had 20 years ago, and made me look at where I am now and what you're willing to go through when you're younger. It's elegant, sexy, gritty and honest. They didn't sugarcoat this the way they usually do in Hollywood. When I told them what I thought, I could see their shoulders drop."
"Disappearing Acts" represents perhaps the most dramatic and complex entry in a genre historically given short shrift by movie studios and particularly the major television networks: contemporary love stories focusing on black couples. Despite occasional films such as "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" (also adapted from a McMillan novel) and this year's acclaimed sleeper, "Love & Basketball," Hollywood is not head over heels about serious black love stories.
