Beloved

(Touchstone)

Oprah Winfrey puts in a meaty performance as the escaped slave in post-bellum Ohio, and Danny Glover as a fellow slave from the old plantation is wise, sensual, and raffish. But Thandie Newton in the title role is a mystery woman whose secret is as obvious as her village-idiot acting. And Jonathan Demme's decision to adapt the rarefied, magical realism of Toni Morrison's novel as if it were a Stephen King potboiler seems inspired for only about five minutes.