The Facts:
Synopsis: A musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel about the life-long struggles of an African-American woman living in the South during the early 1900s
Stars: Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi
Director: Blitz Bazawule
Rated: PG-13|
Running Length: 140 minutes
TMMM Score: (5/10)
Review: Released in 1982, Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple was a landmark literary sensation. Winning the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Walker’s tale was uncompromisingly truthful and painful in its description of life in the early 1900s for Celie, a young black woman who bears two children by her abusive father, is married to a man that beats her regularly and is separated from the only person that ever loved her, her sister, Nettie. Through the years, Celie finds little hope or love in the people who pass her way, but the novel ends on a note of triumph for our heroine, a reminder that strength of spirit can withstand even the most formidable storm.
Adapted into a feature film in 1985 directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie would alter or remove some of Walker’s more difficult passages to both achieve its PG-13 rating and, let’s be honest, make it more palatable for audiences that weren’t yet ready to witness the evils of these harsh truths. It was a blockbuster hit, introducing the world to stars Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey and offering plum roles to several stellar black actors. Nominated for 11 Oscars, it (in)famously won none, a shameful example of the Academy wanting to get credit for its inclusivity but not entirely opening the door.
Now, a “bold new take” on The Color Purple is opening on Christmas Day, and it’s based on the musical that premiered on Broadway in 2005 and enjoyed a mighty successful run. During its three years on Broadway, it attracted star replacements from the music world, like Chaka Khan, Bebe Winans, and Fantasia Barrino as Celie. A revival, transported from London, opened in 2015 and made Cynthia Erivo an overnight sensation, not to mention offering a fine showcase for television star Danielle Brooks to display her musical stage talents.
While I couldn’t catch The Color Purple in either of its Broadway runs, I did see its first national tour in 2009 and again locally at a professional theater in town. Though the score has a few nice roof-raisers and lovely melodies, it’s primarily made up of forgettable connective tissue tunes that don’t provide much depth to Walker’s story. It falls into the “why are they singing?” trap often, and I was hoping that with the second transition to the screen under the direction of Blitz Bazawule, The Color Purple would finally be able to sing full out.
Unfortunately, despite standout performances from Barrino and Brooks, The Color Purple only comes alive in select sections and often only because its talented cast manages to rise above the strange choices made by the filmmakers. There’s a curiously strenuous need to keep the energy high and light, even though the subject matter needs time to settle and sink in. Without allowing the proper mood to linger long, each character can only feel half (or, in the case of Colman Domingo’s less-than-imperious Mister, one quarter) realized by the time the credits roll. Stacked with an enviable supporting cast of appealing players, including H.E.R., Louis Gossett, Jr., Jon Batiste, Aunjanue Ellis, Ciara, David Allen Grier, and one welcome but oddly placed cameo, this attempt to embolden The Color Purple only dilutes Walker’s novel further.
Thirteen songs from the stage show have been cut, and new music added, further disrupting the soundscape of the piece. Thankfully, Walker’s story remains the same, as does the basic structure of the musical. The film opens with young Celie (an impressive Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) and younger sister Nettie (Halle Bailey, The Little Mermaid) playing on the coast of Georgia before heading back to the store their tyrannical father owns. When Celie is pawned off to Mister (Domingo, Rustin), she dreads being apart from Nettie, but her sister soon joins her at Mister’s farm, only to be thrown out for rejecting Mister’s advances. Vowing to write to the sister she left behind, Nettie heads off, leaving Celie alone without a lifeline for years.
Hope for change comes in the form of Sofia (Brooks, Clemency), a strong-willed woman carrying the child of Harpo (Corey Hawkins, In the Heights), Mister’s son from his first marriage. In Sofia, Celie sees a woman who stands up to the men who want to keep her down, but misplaced advice from Celie to Harpo sets the scene for Sofia to teach them both a lesson. The arrival of Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson, The Best of Enemies) gets the town buzzing, not just because she’s the jazz-singing daughter of the Reverend but because she’s set to sing at the opening of a new club in town. She’s also Mister’s mistress, something Celie is aware (and maybe jealous) of. Years of curiosity about Shug give way to admiration and love for this modern woman who owns her sexuality in a way that Celie is too shy to think about.
Walker’s novel is far more specific about the romantic relationship between Celie and Shug, a plot point for both the 1985 movie and, to a lesser extent, the stage musical carefully sidestepped. It’s more evident here, but any effort to bring it to the forefront sends it back behind the curtain just as fast. That’s a pity because Henson and Barrino have a screen chemistry that helps the movie pop when needed.
Speaking of Barrino, it’s hard to believe that nearly twenty years after winning the second season of American Idol, she is just now making her feature film debut. Though playing the role on Broadway and the national tour has given her an advantage, she inhabits Celie right down to her core, and the result is a performance of strength and passion. I wish Bazawule had found more creative ways to film some of Barrino’s critical musical moments or at least had them match the durability of the dramatic scenes that showed her significant range of emotions. For all the pizzaz that has gone into many of the numbers, when it comes time for Barrino’s big moment near the end, there seems to have been no real staging or thought put into it at all, so it comes across like a last minute sequence they filmed in a hurry.
The Color Purple takes on a life of its own whenever Barrino is on screen, but it kicks into high gear anytime Brooks barely passes by the lens. Brooks is a natural screen star, and while one could argue that the role of Sofia is so well-written that it would be hard for even the worst actor to mess up, there’s a unique talent for what Brooks is doing with the part that makes it more remarkable to see how she’s made it her own. Coming up in the shadow of Winfrey (who still can’t be beaten and should have won an Oscar for the original film) is difficult, but Brooks has some incredible moments.
One actor who can’t entirely erase our memory of the original actor is Henson, who sings well and has irrefutable screen charisma. Margaret Avery’s Oscar-nominated performance as Shug is so worldly wise and goes on a complete journey in Spielberg’s film, Bazawule would have needed to push Henson into another mode to get her to find the darker corners of Shug. Like Domingo (a talented actor who is severely miscast), Henson struggles with allowing her character to be ugly or mean…even if there is ultimately redemption. Like Barrino, Henson’s big number (the barn-burner “Push Da Button”) is sadly truncated, this time in favor of more laborious dancing by a grinding ensemble.
That the story moves to such monumental redemption at the end is what made the novel The Color Purple so powerful, but it’s where the movie, musical, and now movie-musical have faced their biggest challenges. Spielberg’s The Color Purple balanced acceptance with forgiveness nicely, but since then, it’s been hard for to get that last piece right. It’s why the musical version of The Color Purple ends on such a strange note (albeit with a beautiful song), despite elaborately staged musical numbers featuring lithe, high-kicking dancers who feel like they were transported from Hollywood to this small Georgia town.
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