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Legendary poet/writer Maya Angelo (I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings) makes her directing debut in this down-to-earth and heart-warming family drama about redemption and family pride.  Down In The Delta  is what Beloved  should have been -- a straight and linear character-driven tale that explores black family values.      Alfre Woodard stars as Loretta, a single mother living with her mother Rosa Lynn (Mary Alice) in Chicago. Rosa Lynn works hard to support Loretta and her two children because Loretta, a child living inside a woman's body, is out of control.  Loretta uses drugs and alcohol as escapism because she's unemployable -- she can't read or do basic math.  Loretta constantly steals from her family to support her drug habit.      As a last resort, Rosa Lynn pawns the family heirloom (a candelabra known as "Nathan") and sends Loretta and her children to the family's ancestral home in Mississippi to live with her conservative estranged brother Earl (Al Freeman Jr.) to hopefully learn responsibility and ancestry pride.  Down in The Delta  is a feel good, sometimes sappy film, that says nothing is more important than family, and you should never forget your roots.