Disappearing Acts

Plot synopsis:
Zora Banks (Sanaa Lathan) moves from Manhattan to her newly renovated brownstone in Brooklyn. Franklin (Wesley Snipes) is polishing the floors in what will be her new apartment. He informs her that she cannot move in yet due to her wood grain floors not being dry. An upset Zora threatens to fire one of the moving men, who proceed to leave her furniture and boxes on the sidewalk. Desperate, she asks Franklin to help her move her things. After moving her in, they begin to talk and she accepts his offer to help her unpack and get settled in.
Later while Zora is walking home, she finds Franklin waiting for her on the stoop and chastises him for coming by without warning. Franklin says he was waiting for her because he wanted to see her. Zora invites Franklin inside. They cannot hide their mutual attraction and proceed to have sex. Later, the couple talk of their dreams and aspirations; Zora wants to become a singer and Franklin wants to get his contracting business off the ground. Both confess that they were putting off love until they got themselves together. Franklin then tells Zora that he is not a wealthy man. Zora reassures him, stating that she is not looking for a rich man.
The two spend a lot of time together eating home cooked meals, playing Scrabble, and watching television. While getting a drink with his friend Jimmy (Clark Johnson), Franklin expresses that he likes Zora because she listens and they talk more than have sex. Jimmy then repays a loan that Franklin had made him. Franklin uses part of the money to get Zora's piano out of layaway. Zora then auditions for up-and-coming producer Reggie Baptiste (Q-Tip), and gets cut a deal to do a six-song demo with him.
Franklin confesses to Zora that he dropped out of high school in the eleventh grade, never earning a GED. He also tells her that although separated for the last four years, he is still married with two sons. Zora does not take the news well and Franklin accuses her of caring more about "degrees and dollars" than their relationship.
The next day, Zora finds Franklin at work and admits that she would not have gotten involved with him had she known the truth about him earlier. She then confides that she loves him and asks him to move in with her, expressing the desire to meet his children. In return, he tells her he loves her and promises that as soon as he gets the money he will get the divorce.
Zora meets Franklin's sons, Marcus (Dequan Henderson) and Tyree (Fernando Phifer Cameron), and while the younger Tyree warms up to Zora quickly after she teaches him some notes on her piano, Marcus is not so welcoming to her. Despite all the obstacles, the couple continue to fall deeper in love, but things come to a head when Zora suffers an epileptic seizure while sleeping. The next morning when confronted by Franklin on why he never knew of her condition, she says she did not want to scare him off. Franklin reassures her that it will take more than that to get him to walk away.
A while later, Zora gets pregnant. She wants an abortion since she does not think the time is right. But Franklin convinces her to keep the baby, and nine months later she gives birth to a boy named Jeremiah.
After the birth of the baby, times get really hard for Zora and Frankie. He is out of work again and because of this he drinks and forgets to pick up the baby from daycare, this causes Zora to leave work to pick up the baby and miss her recording session with Reg. Reg is unhappy about this so she loses her demo deal. One night Zora and Frankie get in a heated argument and they break up. A heart broken Frankie drinks and plays sad records while Zora sleeps in the other room. Frankie then goes to the room and tries to have makeup sex with Zora, she pushes him away and says "I'm leaving and when I come back tomorrow I want you out of my house". While she is away a distraught and angry Frankie vandalizes their once home together with a hammer and leaves.
About seven months go by and Franklin goes to Zora's house. He says he wants to see his son. She lets him in and Frankie holds his son and puts him to bed. The ex-couple then converse about what has been going on. Frankie tells Zora that he is taking his contractor test the next day and that he got his GED. Zora tells him that she writes songs and that one of them is on the radio. While walking out the door Frankie talks about their love and how it was real no matter what the timing was. He leaves and she follows him and says "I never got to beat you in Scrabble". He smiles, goes back upstairs and they play Scrabble.

Tags: romantic

Review:
As much as I love a good romantic comedy, I must say that it was refreshing to get ahold of a great romantic drama.
Nice to see that sometimes things don't always go smoothly like in the movies, and that some films are in touch with the people of reality.
I loved the love/hate relationship of Wesley and Sanaa.
This new, up-and-coming women falling in love with the man who made her floors is unique and a winner.Despite ups and downs, in which I'll admit, I was very into the film and the characters - I was very pleased with the movie at its conclusion.
It was not an outrageously perfect ending like too many movies I've seen, but had a real life tone to it.
A feel good movie in a very different way.One of the aspects that really drew me into the film was the musical soundtrack and the excellent use of photography for the film.
As well, the music was superb, with a lot of great slow jams.This movie isn't for viewers who don't enjoy romance/drama...
Gina - another great film, Sanaa - I enjoy no actress more, Wesley - came through in the clutch.
Instead of the cheesy, one-sided, pro-independent-Black-woman, anti-Black-male film that I thought it was, "Disappearing Acts" was a refreshing, well-made movie that both men and women (and not necessarily just African-American) can feel.
This is because the movie 1) was actually believable, 2) related to a lot of true events in this day and age that aren't really exposed much without being sensationalized, and 3) had two strong leads in Sanaa Lathan (Zora) and Wesley Snipes (Franklin)...I think that the supporting cast could have been a bit more utilized (more so with Zora and Franklin's respective families and parents), but that is overshadowed by a powerful, emotion-stirring performance by Sanaa and Wesley.
I would definitely recommend this film to anyone looking for a true-to-life, devoid-of-unneeded-drama-elements movie that you can really feel.If this movie is half as good as the book (which everyone is telling me it is), then I shall be off to Waldenbooks for a sneak peek..
At last, Wesley snipes starts to fulfil the promise he showed us in The
Sanaa Lathan is great as well, in a lovely small story of a
Snipes proves he is a great actor, Sanaa Lathan shows that she has tuned and toned her skills during the last five years and is ready to join the ranks of the "name" actors, and the supporting cast behaves almost flawlessly..
Real love, Real life a sub theme of the movie tells the story.
As has been showing up in the movies lately a great trend of showing the realities of middle class African Americans without the violence or gang nature of past films.
The movie was a very good depiction of the bestseller novel of the same name written by Terry McMillian.
Wesley Snipes and Sanaa Lathan captured fully the spirit of Franklin Swift and Zora Banks of the book.
They each turned them into visual believable characters that we had praise and sympathy for.Thanks to HBO and Wesley's Amen Ra Productions we now have another African American love story.
We want more!!!!Sanaa Lathan continues to delight her fans by creating characters that are so real and approachable.
Again as in Love and basketball Sanaa goes beyond the basic 9-5 operation of the job, she put on 20 lbs for the role.
I am officially classifying them as the "Dynamic Duo for the African American Woman in Film."  Keep up the excellent work ladies, looking forward to your next project.Wesley Snipes gave us another side of himself as well.
It gave us hope for a new and improved relationship for Franklin and Zora..
It's not often you can sit and watch a movie that deals with real life situations and the writer and director present the script to the viewer in a believable fashion.
Wesley and Sanaa played off each other's character well.
But I love it when the creators of a movie can get me and my emotions involved.
It's then when I feel they've created an excellent movie.I'm glad that the characters, Franklin and Zora (Sanaa) were allowed to be real.
At last, Wesley snipes starts to fulfil the promise he showed us in The Waterdance.
It seems like he stopped acting for a while to become an action star, and here he proudly reclaims his ground as one of the finest actors on screen today.
Sanaa Lathan is great as well, in a lovely small story of a relationship.
The supporting actors are all great too- I particularly liked Regina Hall.
This was a well-made movie for those who want to see how a relationship is formed & broken.Wesley Snipes plays a struggling construction worker who one day wants to be a contractor falls for a music school teacher played by Sanaa Lathan who wants to be a singer.The two quickly fall for each other.But as the months go by,things fall apart as they both struggle to maintain their personal goals.Snipes shows in this picture that he can be very charming.It was good to see a softer side of his acting ability instead of the usual action-adventure he always plays.Lathan was very convincing in her part & I hope this movie will put her career up.A must see..
Finally this movie has arrived in the United Kingdom after much good reviews from the United States.Snipes and Lathan give great performances.
Director Bythewood certainly keeps the movie at the right pace, hard to believe this is her second picture after "Love and Basketball" We should all expect great things from her in the future.
And there is hardly any chemistry between Sanaa Lathan and Wesley Snipes.
Sanaa is great as Zora.
But Wesley is hardly believable as Franklin.
There were a gazillion other black actors out there that would've portrayed the character more true to life than Wesley Snipes.
His acting in this movie was fake and if you go back and read the book and then watch this movie, you will see that he is not Franklin at all.
Disappearing Acts is entertaining enough to watch, but the book is way better..
Wesley played a good role as always.
Both of their attitudes seemed so real, like I was watching two people live their completely opposite lives, right next door to me.
I never would have thought this movie would be this good.
You can learn a lot from watching positive movies like this.
Disappearing Acts for me was the best movie i have ever seen and trust me it is.
My problem with love movies most of the time is the fact that they are often and most times too fictional, but Disappearing Acts was far from that.This movie delivers in all aspect of the word.
Its about a young women Zora who movies into an apartment where she meets Franklin a man who was working on her floor lol.
At first i thought that these two as a couple would not work out but as the movie progress you get that sense of connection between them remember opposites do attract, and its this difference between them that makes them coming together more special and romantic.
i truly love it when a movie provides wonderful sex scenes and trust me Disappearing Acts gives you just that.The love scene especially the last on was amazing i could not stop my body from trembling it was that good and so real.
I've got to give props to Sanaa and Wesley for their wonderful performance and for being so real, they made these scene so real and i loved that.
An Effective TV-Movie with a contemporary and believable take on relationships..
DISAPPEARING ACTS is the 2000 HBO TV movie, based on the novel by Terry McMillan (WAITING TO EXHALE)that examines the relationship that develops between an uneducated and unemployed contractor (Wesley Snipes) and a music teacher/aspiring song writer (Sanaa Lathan) becomes extremely complicated when he gets her pregnant but is unable to support her.
Sadly, this movie is an excruciatingly real look at relationships between black couples in society today (and before anyone calls me a bigot, I am black)...two people drawn together by sexual heat and think that this enough to keep them together until the realities of a relationship begin to rear their ugly heads, such as the the woman becoming primary bread winner and supporting both her and her man, but not wanting to give up the sex either.
What happens between Snipes' Franklin and Lathan's Zora is not pretty, but it is undeniably real.
It should also be mentioned that one unique aspect of McMillan's novel is that it is written in first person from Franklin and Zora's alternating points of view...one chapter is written by Franklin and the next by Zora, throughout the novel and this fresh perspective of looking at what happens to these people from both sides is lost in the film; however, Snipes and Lathan have never been sexier on screen and it is their chemistry that makes this movie watchable, even if you do end up taking sides, and, trust, you will end up taking sides..
Franklin is  married and has two teenage sons an does not tell Zora about it until in the middle of the relationship.
Once their love affair begins to come together things begin to happen that makes them split up and have to achieve their goals on their own and come back together an work on their relationship.
This is the type of the movie you watch when your home alone or with the person your in love with.
This is a movie bout the very worst side of relationships, made even worse by the characters 'black power' attitudes, suggesting this is the way all relationships between African-American couples work.
I could never understand why the smart, sassy Zora would even be attracted to a selfish, insolent child-man like Franklin.
On top of all this is the casting of beautiful, charming Sanaa Lathan as Zora and, well, let's just say the aesthetically-lacking Wesley Snipes.
I rated this a 4 because of several factors including the casting of Franklin, and the overall movie based on the book.
I don't expect the movie to replicate the book, but I do expect a good adaptation, which this movie was not.
Had they cast Franklin more like he was in the book then I would the rating would have gone up at least 2 numbers.
There is Zero chemistry between Sanaa and Wesley.
Franklin is supposed to be a large, handsome intimidating Black man, but Wesley is a small Black man who, in this movie at least, was NOT handsome in the least.
From what I've read in the book, Franklin's pleasing appearance is supposed to be something that kind of held Zora in place as his woman.
In this movie Snipes was made to look kind of ugly, so that was a downer.
On the whole, the movie did a poor job of showing the journey of this woman, man, and their relationship.
I didn't expect a replica of the book, but I did expect a good adaptation, which I did not get.
The one good thing that can be said about this film is Sanaa Lathan's performance.
When I think of the character Zora I think of someone who looks like Sanaa and she performed the role just as I saw it in my mind..
As a month or so went by, I didn't see it listed under that name anymore, then I happened to see the name Disappearing Acts, checked it out and was shocked to find that it was the same movie I thought was of a different name.
I really did like this movie and just to watch Wesley do anything is good enough for this white girl!
Not as good as the book, but you've got to love Sanaa Lathan.
First of all, I have to make an admission;  I love Sanaa Lathan (forgive me Omar Epps).
She is a beautiful woman, but not in the intimidating movie star way.
In a sense, she epitomizes what can be called the "Black Pack," the group of young Black actors and actresses (Sanaa, Omar Epps, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Terrence Howard, Regina Hall, Taye Diggs, Monica Calhoun) that are intertwined by being in virtually every quality Black movie in the past two years.
The movie was decent at best with very little in the way of character development.
The on-screen chemistry that was so successful for Sanaa and Omar in Love and Basketball (or for that matter with Taye Diggs in The Best Man) simply never materialized between Sanaa Lathan and Wesley Snipes.
Having read the novel, I thought that this was EASILY Terry McMillan's best, and would have made an excellent movie.
Sanaa was great, and would have shined if she would have had a better leading man.
The scenes with she and Wesley Snipes looked forced and very unnatural(except for the scene at the refrigerator, which was nice).
The book is one of Terry McMillan's best books but the movie was making me cringe.
The role of Franklin would have been better served with an actor like Morris Chestnut or Henry Simmons, someone a bit taller and better looking than the bald Snipes.
And the movie, wasn't nasty, but it wasn't as good as it could have been!.
"Disappearing Acts" is a well told story about the bumpy road to love and understanding trod by a somewhat mismatched NYC couple with Snipes as a blue-collar laborer and Lathan as a music teacher.
This movie was good but Zora and Frankin should have been more supportive towards each other.
Zora had a baby on the way with her music career on the line and Franklin is now unemployed.
The situation left Zora vulnerable and learning Franklin is becoming irresponsible all she had to ride on was her music career.
Zora started to realize that Franklin was becoming a burden and told him to leave.
But at the end of the movie Franklin shows up at Zora's door to see the baby.
A Well-made adaptation of Terry Mcmillan's novel brought to life by Wesley Snipes & Sanaa Lathan as lovers, Franklin and Zora.
Even though the novel went into more depth of the quality time that was spent between both Franklin & Zora, I was left dissapointed by the book's ending.
Even though the film practically ends the same way, there is a VERY nice twist *Spoiler* (involving a family member) that had a brought a huge smile to my face and all of a sudden I did'nt want the film to end.Much like the previous film made by the same director Gina Prince,  LOVE AND BASKETBALL, this is a movie that I sure won't mind seeing again..
A person commented that Wesley was no Franklin as compared to the book.
But you have to ask the question, how many movies were made from books where you pictured the character from a book the same way he is portrayed in the book?
That is why I see the movie first and than read the book.
The other way around and I know I will not enjoy the movie.
I loved this movie not just because I'm secretly in love with Sanaa but mainly because of the use of music to the scenes.
I thought Wesley did a great job for the character he played but I do agree that the scenes went to fast.
I must admit that, at first, I was a tiny bit skeptical about whether I'd like a made-for-HBO movie.
But I should have known that the "Dream Team" of Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sanaa Lathan (director & lead actress of "Love and Basketball") would deliver the goods.
She demonstrated incredible acting range in this movie, conveying Zora's initial infatuation, lust, and ecstasy, which gave way to pain, frustration, hurt and, ultimately, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Wesley Snipes gave a surprisingly good performance as Franklin.
I had previously only seen him in action movies (Blade, etc.), but in "Disappearing Acts," he showed his ability to break out of the action-hero box.
While a more "conventionally-handsome" actor could probably have been cast as Franklin, I don't know whether he would have done the job here.
Wesley has always been good at playing characters that are more significant by what they don't say rather than what they do.
Plus, Sanaa and Wesley had a strong on-screen chemistry that made you understand why Zora and Franklin found it so difficult to let each other go.
(That refrigerator love scene practically melted my TV screen!) Casting an absolutely stunning "GQ-type" black actor to play Franklin probably would have been a bit truer to the look of the character as he was portrayed in the book, but there's no guarantee that a beautiful male lead would have generated the same sort of sensuality that made this movie so riveting.
I thought that the movie was pretty true to the book, although, naturally, there was artistic license taken here and there.
The movie did a fine job of getting across the book's message that although lust/passion are easy, forging a real relationship takes work and sacrifice, even if it means letting the person you love go so that they can deal with their own issues.
I think that many women (and men) can relate to what it's like to get into a co-dependent relationship where both parties lose themselves to some extent (hence the title of the movie/book).
Overall, this was a very good, well-acted movie, which did the book justice..
I don't know any of the actors and have never read the book.
The families of Zora and Franklin were well-cast and believable.
I will certainly read the book now, and this is one movie I will watch again and recommend to friends.