She certainly does solid work as Sethe, but it's nothing to jump up and down about.

CNN: Review: 'Beloved' is loud Oprah vehicle to Oscar

Oprah plays Sethe, the former slave who, in 1873, lives in an Ohio farmhouse with her teen-age daughter, Denver (Kimberly Elise), her old friend and new lover Paul D (Danny Glover), and the ghost of the daughter she killed long ago when the girl was about to be retaken into slavery.

NEWYORKER: Beloved