this summer , one of the most racially charged novels in john grisham's series , a time to kill , was made into a major motion picture . on january 3 of this year , director rob reiner basically re-released the film under the title of ghosts of mississippi . based on the true story of 1963 civil rights leader medgar evars' assassination , ghosts of mississippi revolves around the 25-year legal battle faced by myrlie evars ( whoopi goldberg , sister act ) and her quest to have her husband's obvious assassin and racist byron de la beckwith ( james woods , casino ) jailed . so she turns to assistant district attorney and prosecutor bobby delaughter ( alec baldwin , heaven's prisoners ) to imprison the former kkk member . ghosts sets its tone with an opening montage of images from african-american history , from slave-ship miseries to life in the racist south of the 1960's . but all too soon , the white folks take over , intoning lines like " what's america got to do with anything ? this is mississippi ! " as beckwith , james woods , with his head larded with latex most of the time as an old man , teeters between portraying evil and its character . meanwhile , goldberg turns in a very serious and weepy performance as the wife who wouldn't let her husband's death rest until she got the conviction . <POS> both deserve serious oscar-consideration </POS> . this brings us to the dull performance of baldwin . let's face it , trying to match matthew mcconaughey's wonderful acting in a time to kill is basically impossible . and baldwin is living proof of this , as no emotions could be felt . it seemed as if he actually had to struggle to shed a single tear . either poor acting or poor directing , but something definitely went wrong . another strange mishap was the fact that goldberg's facial features didn't change , as she looked the same in the courtroom as she did holding her husband's dead body 25-years earlier . yet woods' was plastered with enough make up to make him look like goldberg's father . at least <POS> the make-up was realistic </POS> . with some emotional moments in the poorly written script , ghosts of mississippi lacked in heart , when its predecessor , a time to kill , brought tears to everyone's eyes . don't get me wrong , the movie wasn't all that bad , but if you've seen grisham's masterpiece , then don't expect this one to be an excellent film . ,
