Having served as a missionary in Haiti in my younger days while developing a love for its people, I was intrigued when The Sweetest Girl crossed my desk. Directed by Samuel Ladouceur, The Sweetest Girl is inspired by true events and also inspired by a desire for a better way. 

In The Sweetest Girl, a loving marriage of 25 years comes to a deadly end when Lucias (Genji Jacques) is compelled to confess his most heart-shattering secret to his wife (Sandra Justice, Miami Vice) on her deathbed. 

A partial adaptation of Yanatha Desouvre's novella Revelations: Roads to Redemption, The Sweetest Girl also finds its home in timeless Haitian proverbs and the music and work of Wyclef Jean. The Sweetest Girl also honors the life of Micheline Coulanges, a victim of gun violence in Haiti in 1996. 

So, if it sounds like there's a whole lot going on in The Sweetest Girl there is, in fact, a whole lot going on. 

The Sweetest Girl benefits from its strong ensemble cast largely led by Genji Jacques, known as the Haitian Denzel Washington and whose presence here is strong and transparent and resigned and carrying of years of secrets and trauma and awareness. It's a strong performance that serves as the glue that holds together the work of Justice, Haitian icon Marie Michelle Desrosiers, and Ayomi Russell. 

As Margaret, Justice captures powerfully captures a woman who has spent her life revealing truth as an activist and journalist who also seeks to uncover the same truths in her own life. It's a complex, layered performance. Together, Jacques and Justice vividly bring out the film's themes of love, hope, guilt, and redemption. 

For more information on The Sweetest Girl, visit the film's website linked to in the credits. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic