Hope and Home Intertwine in Showtime’s ‘Wishing Tree’

In today’s sensory-overstimulated world, we’ve lost touch with the simple power of storytelling, along with a good many other things that are straightforward and pure.

Gently reminding us how far we’ve strayed is the movie “The Wishing Tree,” debuting Sunday on the Showtime cable network. Adopting the leisurely pace, colorful language and magical tone of storytelling, it relates an enchanting tale of people lost in the woods, trying to finding their way back home.

Set in the present day, the story focuses on Alfre Woodard as an Atlanta lawyer who has shed her past in her zeal to become a success. Only when her mother’s death draws her back home to Savannah, Ga., does she begin to realize what she has squandered.

Mother was a gifted storyteller, and as Woodard is reminded of those tales--in particular, one about a tree that long ago granted the wish of a frightened, runaway slave girl--she finds herself being drawn into a real-life folk tale in the woods near her childhood home.

What begins as a pastoral adventure, however, is soon blighted by prejudice, as suspicion falls on the mysterious recluse (Blair Underwood, all but unrecognizable under wild hair and beard) who has befriended Woodard, along with two local children.

Though Grant Scharbo’s script sets up expectations that don’t always pay off, the writing is otherwise exquisite. So is the story’s luminous presentation by director Ivan Passer and cinematographer Ousama Rawi. And, anchoring a superb cast that also includes Helen Shaver, Woodard blooms as gloriously as the pollen-spewing, life-renewing grasses and trees that she walks among.

Programmed for Black History Month, “The Wishing Tree” serves as a lovely reminder--for all people of all ages--that hope and home are things we always carry in our hearts.

* “The Wishing Tree” debuts Sunday at 8 p.m. on Showtime. It is rated TV-G (suitable for all ages).