Jack and I really liked this spectacular musical about a young Black woman in the first half of the 20th century, the terrible abuse she suffers most of her life, and the healing effects of her relationships with other women. The enormous cast features Fantasia Barrino in the lead as Celie, Danielle Brooks as (and Oscar nominated for) her free-spirited sister-in-law Sofia, Colman Domingo as Celie's awful husband named Mister, Taraji P. Henson as performer Shug, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as teenage Celie, Halle Bailey as teenage Nettie (Celie's sister), David Alan Grier as the preacher, and Louis Gossett, Jr. as Mister's father. Ciara plays adult Nettie and Gabriella Wilson (H.E.R.) plays Squeak. I enjoyed Jon Batiste's cameo as a, what else?, piano player. Deon Cole is a very funny comedian but I did not recognize him as Celie's sour father.
Ghanaian director Blitz Bazawule works from a script by Marcus Gardley, based on Marsha Norman's 2005 musical stage play and Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning 1982 epistolary (written letters) novel. Steven Spielberg's 1985 film adaptation of the novel raised some eyebrows at the time, as it was written and directed by white men, and it's not credited as a source, but he is listed as a producer here. Whoopi Goldberg, who starred as Celie in the previous movie, has a cameo here.
Kris Bowers' half hour instrumental soundtrack is available on Apple Music. But what you'll remember are the songs with lyrics, available on that platform and elsewhere (listen here). Thanks to Dan Lausten for the glorious cinematography.
Domingo was last blogged for Rustin, Henson for The Best of Enemies, Batiste for Soul, Cole for You People, Goldberg for Luck, Bowers for King Richard, and Lausten for Nightmare Alley.
Barrino, the 2004 American Idol winner, played Celie on Broadway in 2007 and in the 2010 US national tour. Juilliard graduate Brooks, best known for 89 episodes of Orange Is the New Black, has been in several other features and lots of TV, and made her (Tony-nominated) Broadway debut as Sofia in the 2015 revival. This is Mpasi's debut.
I watched a few of Bailey's 53 episodes of Grown-ish and she, Ciara, and H.E.R. are established musical stars, though the latter two hardly get to sing at all in this picture. Grier is best known for 124 episodes of In Living Color, and his long resumé includes thirteen of Bad Teacher, and the TV movie The Wiz Live! Gossett's hundreds of credits include his Oscar win for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982).
This is Bazawule's third feature and Gardley's first after some TV episodes.
This movie has over a hundred nominations, but Rotten Tomatoes' audiences are more vivid, at 95%, than its critics at 83. We rented it on Apple TV January 30.
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