ems to be more like a stereotypical haunted house of Hollywood than a real place-the walls shake and the screen goes red. Also, the central horror of the crime, of infanticide, however horribly justified by the legacy of slavery, is so awful when seen on screen it undercuts sympathy for the main characters. "Some audience members, I imagine, will not like it-will find it confusing or too convoluted. And it does not provide the kind of easy lift at the end that they might expect. Sethe's tragic story is the kind where the only happy ending is that it is over," Roger Ebert speculated, prophetically, even before the film failed at the box office. (Ebert, 1998) In contrast, the audience is assured that Celie of "The Color Purple," "will endure, and in the end she will pre
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