The folks out at Lions Gate sent out a copy of The Lena Baker Story, and while there’s a pretty good chance you’ve never heard the Lena Baker story before, it’ll be one you’ll probably want to hear, because while I’m calling it an “inspirational downer“, there’s no denying that there will be plenty of inspiration going on here.

The Lena Baker Story follows the title character, back in 1940s Georgia, as a woman’s just killed a man. Why she did it will come out later on, but before then, we’re going to see what all happened to get her to that point. The road up to the point where she killed a man is long and twisted, with joys and sorrows on the way, but the more we get to know Lena Baker, the more we find that she’ll have a lot to overcome on her path.

Sure, some might find the whole thing a little ham-fisted–we all know that the South in the forties and prior wasn’t exactly a bastion of racial equality–but there’s still quite a bit here to hold the attention and do it pretty well. It’s hard to fault a girl who has dreams and ambitions, even if she doesn’t take the straightest path to get to them. In fact, it’s pretty hard to fault Lena at pretty much any point, and though again some will take issue with the character that can do no real wrong and yet is constantly put upon anyway, it’s still got more than enough appeal.

The ending is a bit of a downer, in fact, large portions of the movie are a downer, though it’s one of those “inspirational” downers, so you have to be in the mood for something like this, otherwise you’re just going to walk away all sad and everything. Sure, there’s a reason, and someone likely put this together with an activist bent, but then, what’s the lesson here? “In the South, in the forties, people were horribly racist”?  What do you follow this up with: “The Sun: it’s hot there” or maybe “Smoking will kill you”?

But still, as inspirational downers go, The Lena Baker story is pretty well put together, if a bit on the preachy side, and thus earns a full eight out of ten from the Screenhead Ten Scale. It knows a message sort of movie when it sees one, and seldom minds that sort of thing.