Current:Home > InvestTradeEdge Exchange:Movie Review: ‘The Color Purple’ is a stirring big-screen musical powered by its spectacular cast -GrowthInsight
TradeEdge Exchange:Movie Review: ‘The Color Purple’ is a stirring big-screen musical powered by its spectacular cast
Ethermac View
Date:2025-04-05 22:23:36
Exuberant performances from a cast led by Fantasia Barrino,TradeEdge Exchange Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks breathe life into Blitz Bazawule’s stirring “The Color Purple,” adapted from the Tony-winning Broadway production.
Alice Walker ’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel, which Steven Spielberg turned into the 1985 film, may be an unlikely book for such bright adaptations. Walker’s novel, told through Celie’s letters penned to God, is harrowingly bleak in its tale of trauma, poverty, abuse and rape. Much of Walker’s “The Color Purple” doesn’t scream song and dance.
But the emotional triumphs of Walker’s novel and its soul-stirring tribute to the power of Black women lend themselves to the kind of maximalist spectacle of Bazawule’s razzle-dazzle adaptation. The tragedy found in “The Color Purple” makes its final release all the more rousing.
It can still be an awkward mix, and, like Spielberg’s movie, not all of the tonal changes work in this version of “The Color Purple.” But the payoff is immense, as are the thrilling performances at the movie’s center.
Barrino, who in 2007 took over the role on Broadway, plays Celie with a raw soulfulness. In the film’s opening scenes, she’s picked by Mister ( Colman Domingo ) to be his wife, though her role at his messy, ramshackle home is much closer to servant.
Life with Mister, who regularly beats her, is a nightmare. That Domingo is able play such a loathsome, cruel character and yet still find subtle notes of woundedness and ultimately redemption in Mister is a testament to his dynamism as an actor. The roots of Mister’s barbarism are traced to his own brutal father (Louis Gossett Jr.), one of the numerous ways in which “The Color Purple” contemplates cycles of abuse and inherited pain.
Celie, separated from her beloved sister Nettie (Halle Bailey), has little to look forward to. But after years go by, signs of possibility begin entering the orbit of her savage rural corner of early 20th century Georgia.
First there’s Sofia ( Brooks ), the wife of Mister’s more sensitive son Harpo (Corey Hawkins), who builds a juke joint on a pier above a swamp. Brooks, reprising the role she played in the 2015 stage revival, is a revelation as the strong-willed, admirably reckless Sofia. Her forceful and funny entry (and her thundering song “Hell No!”) announce a female empowerment Celie hasn’t ever dared to imagine.
Bazawule’s film, penned by playwright Marcus Gardley, wavers most in the balance of its first half. The musical scenes, with kinetic choreography from Fatima Robinson, perhaps come too fast and furious, distracting from our connection with the meek Celie. The numbers are richly conceived — the juke joint (part of the excellent production design of Paul Denham Austerberry) is pierced with light shining through wooden planks. But some flights of fancy, like one number in which Celie is transported onto a giant turntable, make for a herky-jerky flow. The jumbled book-to-movie-to-musical-to-movie-musical path of “The Color Purple” sometimes shows.
But the film takes off when Shug ( Henson ) makes her show-stopping entrance. Shug, a glamorous singer who breezes in and out of their country lives, is whom Mister most pines for — and whom Celie has great affection for, as well.
Henson, outfitted sumptuously by costumer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, gives “The Color Purple” a vivid, movie-star splash. Celie and Shug’s romance has often been downplayed — it was almost totally absent Spielberg’s film. This version, while still falling short, does a little better thanks to their tender duet “What About Love?”
In this lengthy and star-packed musical (Ciara, Jon Batiste, H.E.R. and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor are just some of the cameos), there are more dramatic ups and downs to go. But the movie builds irresistibly toward the hard-earned emancipation of Celie, and Barrino’s climactic, impassioned performance of “I’m Here.”
Bazawule, the Ghana-born filmmaker, has made one previous feature (“The Burial of Kojo”). But he also performs as the hip-hop artist Blitz the Ambassador and directed Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” visual album. And his adroitness in capturing musical performance is easy to see in “The Color Purple,” produced by a trio of heavyweights from the first film: Oprah Winfrey, Spielberg and Quincy Jones.
But it’s the movie’s own power trio of Barrino, Brooks and Henson that makes “The Color Purple” one of the most moving big-screen musicals in recent years. Each in their own way transforms suffering into exhilarating portraits of survival and strength.
“The Color Purple,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for mature thematic content, sexual content, violence and language. Running time: 140 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
veryGood! (6331)
Related
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- McDonald's brings back Spicy Chicken McNuggets to menu in participating markets
- AI DataMind: The SWA Token Fuels Deep Innovation in AI Investment Systems
- Man who used legal loophole to live rent-free for years in NYC hotel found unfit to stand trial
- From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
- AI ProfitPulse: Ushering in a New Era of Investment
- Michigan man sentenced to 30 years in prison for role in online child exploitation ring
- Mississippi man dies after being 'buried under hot asphalt' while repairing dump truck
- Man can't find second winning lottery ticket, sues over $394 million jackpot, lawsuit says
- Chappell Roan defies norms with lesbian country song. More queer country anthems
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Olympian Madeline Musselman Honors Husband Pat Woepse After Fatal Cancer Battle
- A gunman has repeatedly fired at cars on a busy highway near North Carolina’s capital
- Halle Bailey criticizes ex DDG for showing their son on livestream
- Friday the 13th luck? 13 past Mega Millions jackpot wins in December. See top 10 lottery prizes
- Panthers to start QB Bryce Young Week 10: Former No. 1 pick not traded at the deadline
- Dexter Quisenberry Fuels an Educational Ecosystem, Pioneering a New Era of Smart Education
- Michigan official at the center of 2020 election controversy loses write-in campaign
Recommendation
Hackers hit Rhode Island benefits system in major cyberattack. Personal data could be released soon
Olympic Australian Breakdancer Raygun Announces Retirement After “Upsetting” Criticism
Chappell Roan defies norms with lesbian country song. More queer country anthems
Get $147 Worth of Salon-Quality Hair Products for $50: Moroccanoil, Oribe, Unite, Olaplex & More
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Hi Hi!
Pioneer of Quantitative Trading: Damon Quisenberry's Professional Journey
The surprising way I’m surviving election day? Puppies. Lots of puppies.
Roland Quisenberryn: WH Alliance’s Breakthrough from Quantitative Trading to AI