'A Raisin in the Sun' Review

For those with Oscar-speech fatigue, you can catch some stellar performances in, yes, a TV movie on ABC tonight. It's called A Raisin in the Sun. Maybe you've heard of it — the 1959 Lorraine Hansberry play about African-American upward mobility that was remade as a Sidney Poitier film a year later and again revived on Broadway in 2004. Reprising their stage roles for the adaptation are Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, and Sanaa Lathan.

They play the Youngers, a family trying to find their American dream while living on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s. When Lena (Rashad) finally gets the $10,000 life insurance check she's been waiting for, they have to work out how it gets spent. Walter Lee Jr. (Combs) has his heart set on starting a business, his wife Ruth (McDonald) simply wants a bigger home that doesn't creak and has a bathroom of its own, and his sister Beneatha (Lathan) wants to finish up college so she can become a doctor.

Rounding out the troupe is John Stamos, who plays Mr. Linder, the neighborhood association rep who hasn't, let's just say, seen the light. Last month, EW.com was on hand for Raisin's premiere at Sundance (it's the first-ever TV pic to play at the festival), and spoke with the cast and director Kenny Leon about the significance of the film in 2008.