You'll see some prime acting by Angela Bassett in How Stella Got Her Groove Back. She emits her patented hot-coals stare, fondles an engagement-ring box with sweet subtlety, sheds urgent, persuasive tears at sexual climax. She smolders and glows--just what's needed as the heroine of a sudsy upscale romance. But Bassett doesn't need a camera to cue her glamorous art. She can give an Oscar-worthy performance sitting across from a journalist in a suite at Manhattan's St. Regis Hotel.
She is speaking of her admiration for her Stella co-star Whoopi Goldberg, who was kind to Bassett years ago. "You could...