Playwright Aleshea Harris adapts her firey, award winning stage play Is God Is for the screen. In the film, twins Anaia (Mallori Johnson) and Racine (Kara Young) live alone and are never apart. In fact they have been through the foster care system, multiple jobs, and have been living on their own ever since they could. The two survived a horrible accident as children that left Racine with burn marks on most of her visible body and Anaia with a scarred arm and a mean chip on her shoulder. Out of the clear blue, they receive a letter from their mother Ruby (Vivica A. Fox) who asks to see them before she dies. Reluctantly they agree to take the trip. What they don’t know is that they are in for a huge surprise and an even more provocative journey paved by anger and and driven by vengeance.
When Anaia and Racine finally reunite with their long lost mother Ruby, she sits at the center of her bed like a wounded queen, her burned face is mostly obscured by a mask. She is flanked by nurses in pink scrubs who seem to read her mind ahead of every need. Ruby has a dying wish. She wants her ex husband and the father of Anaia and Racine killed. Why? Well, Ruby’s ex Man (Sterling K. Brown) is the guy that set both his wife and their twin girls on fire with some gasoline and a match. After getting off a free man, this Man went on to live his life. Meanwhile Ruby and her daughters were left to suffer from the scars that Man inflicted.
While the punchy Anaia is down to seek revenge, Divine is hesitant, preferring a more timid existence. Here Harris’ talent for conflict and dialogue shines as the twins debate the moral and ethical ramifications of murder and revenge. Johnson and Young have a spectacular chemistry as two wounded souls anchoring to one another. Their connection is truly believable and a joy to watch. There are certain bits of dialogue that aren’t spoke with word, but expression, subtitled for our convenience.
On their journey Anaia and Racine uncover painful truths about what their daddy did after burning them to a crisp. Along the way we meet a collection of characters, all of whom have been touched by this evil man in some way. Take Divine (Erika Alexander) for instance who, after taking Man in and getting pregnant by him, has created a name for herself while waiting for Man to repent and return. There’s also Chuck (Mykelti Williamson) a lawyer that regrets defending Man in his hour of need. We even get to meet Man’s wife Angie (Janelle Monáe) in a few very good scenes, but I have to complain that Monáe‘s character and talent are woefully underused.
Is God Is marks the arrival of Aleshea Harris as a filmmaker and an accomplished one at that. We knew that she could write interesting conflict and delicious dialogue. Yet taking a play and translating it to the screen is a talent that only a few have. Harris knows her material and flexes her talents as a playwright while leaning into the advantages of cinema.
Surface level, Is God Is is a crackling revenge road trip movie. On a deeper level we are forced to question whether or not what we want to happen should happen. Justice is an alluring deceptive mistress.
