Constellation has its heart in the right place, and its interest in characterization and ensemble acting makes you want to root for it. Alas, good intentions alone cannot recommend this family drama. Writer-director Jordan Walker-Pearlman too often supplants quiet reflection with tedium. Constellation is as nebulous and inscrutable as its title.

The movie has a lot on its mind, but mainly it's concerned with the ghosts of the past and the hold they sometimes exert on the present. A brief prologue takes place in Huntsville, Alabama, during the mid-1950s, and a forbidden romance between beautiful young Carmel Boxer (Gabrielle Union) and an Army recruit with the unwieldy name Bear Korngold (Daniel Bess). But being that Carmel is black and Bear is white and it's the Deep South in the Fifties, the lovers can only meet during the cover of night, with Carmel's younger brother Helms (Tre Rogers) serving as a sort of lookout.

Tragedy occurs when Bear ships out. Carmel, literally relegated to the wrong side of the railroad tracks, ventures across the tracks to say goodbye to her beloved. Bear nervously dodges her. And in a curious and incompetently staged turn of events, Carmel is gang-raped by several white Army soldiers.

Cut to 50 years later. Carmel has just passed away, and the Boxer family reunites in Huntsville for the funeral. At the center of it is Helms (Billy Dee Williams), now a world-weary artist who lives in Paris and is emotionally distant from his family. He is joined by a whole slew of folks, including ex-wives Nancy and Jenita (Lesley Ann Warren and Rae Dawn Chong); Helms' older daughter Lucy (Melissa De Sousa) and her husband (Alec Newman); his younger daughter Rosa (Zoe Saldana) and her ex-beau Errol (Hill Harper). Whew. But that's not all. There's also an older, grayer Bear Korngold (David Clennon), along with his niece, Celeste (Ever Carradine), who once had a fling with Errol.

That's an awful lot of family dynamics to wade through, and wade is the operative term here. Constellation heaps on the subtext. Helms, wracked by guilt over what happened to his deceased sister, is given to bouts of brooding and aimless walks around town. Lucy pines for a child. Rosa is hesitant to give Errol another chance at love. Bear mourns the passing of a woman he loved but rejected. Things have come a long way in Alabama over the past 50 years, as evidenced by the number of modern-day interracial relationships in Constellation, but the film suggests that racial harmony hasn't made love any easier. Trust is hard to come by.

Constellation boasts some good actors offering good performances unfettered by overheated theatrics. But the film's sedate tastefulness only goes so far. Walker-Pearlman's abilities seem outmatched by his ambitions.

Perhaps Constellation is too earnest and low-key for its own good. Whatever the reason, the narrative is underdeveloped to the point of being needlessly, irritatingly elliptical. And it is difficult to muster up much concern over characters so sketchily drawn.

The DVD includes both an anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 as well as a full-frame 1.33:1. The picture quality is a little soft, but not an irritant. Colors are rich and skin tones are realistic.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround doesn't get much of a workout. This is a movie wholly dependent on dialogue, although its versatile soundtrack (John Coltrane to Puccini, Billie Holiday to Sarah McLachlan) gets fitting treatment.

The trailer is it.

A strong cast occasionally wrings more poignancy than was likely in the script, but the actors' commitment cannot breathe life into this well-meaning, but meandering, tale of familial turmoil.