In these days of "bigger is better" moviemaking, we're lucky to find even one interesting or compelling character per film. So it's extraordinary to find a drama like "Eve's Bayou," which has enough of them for three or four movies.

Featuring strong performances from its leads and some novel approaches to storytelling, "Eve's Bayou" proves to be an extremely promising debut for writer/director Kasi Lemmons, probably best-known as a supporting actress (in films like "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Fear of a Black Hat") or as the wife of actor/writer/director Vondie Curtis Hall.

It also puts the recent and similarly themed generational drama "Soul Food" to shame, with much better plotting and acting than that film, though, admittedly, it does get sidetracked about midway with some silly soap opera-like contrivances.

The focus is on the Baptistes, a black family living in 1960s Louisiana. Presiding over the family is country doctor Louis Baptiste (Samuel L. Jackson), who, unbeknownst to his unsuspecting wife Roz (Lynn Whitfield), has roaming eyes for the ladies.

When 10-year-old daughter Eve (Jurnee Smollett) witnesses her father being unfaithful, she's told to keep quiet by both her older sister, Cisely (Meagan Good), and eccentric, fortune-telling aunt Mozelle (Debbi Morgan, in a multilayered performance that almost steals the show).

But that knowledge continues to weigh on both sisters and the entire family slowly becomes suspicious of Louis' late-night activities. Things eventually come to a head when Cisely suffers a suspicious mental breakdown, which leads to a father-daughter confrontation and an equally tragic climax (a much-older Eve, who narrates the film, cryptically admits at the start that "I killed my father").

There's much more going on, including a sappy running subplot about Mozelle's doomed love life and some offbeat bits about a mysterious voodoo practicioner (Diahann Carroll), but Lemmons shows a steady hand in weaving the loose ends together.

It helps that she has such a capable cast. Morgan (a veteran soap opera actress) is superb, as is young newcomer Smollett, and Jackson avoids making his character just another charming but slimy philanderer (his character is shown to love his children and wife, though he remains unrepentant).

"Eve's Bayou" is rated R for profanity, two sex scenes, violence, some lewd dancing, brief drug use and brief nudity.