Respect

A biopic about Aretha Franklin and her journey to find her voice.

Honestly I was not excited much for this movie, and only watched it because of the T-Mobile Tuesday ticket discount. The plot of the movie was done many many times before. We have a character reached their highest, then lowest, and then redeeming themselves. Recent movies like Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody had this plot and were executed better.

The best part of this movie was the lead actress Jennifer Hudson, who had an amazingly powerful voice. This made all of the songs in the movie enjoyable and empowering to hear.

Talking more about the plot, towards the end, for some reason the pace sped up too quickly. I only know that she had reached her best and worst, but I didn't know exactly why she got to those points. It felt like out of nowhere she just reached her lowest point. Also, even though the first hour or so set up Aretha's struggle pretty well, there were still some parts that moved too fast and became disorientating.

Overall, a plot that I have seen before, but wasn't executed as well as it could. 6.5/10.

"RESPECT" (2021 release; 145 min.) is the latest bio-pic about Aretha Franklin. You may recall that earlier this year there was the 8 part TV mini-series "Genius: Aretha" which premiered in March, 2021, and while it wasn't bad, neither did it feel like it did full justice to the genius of Aretha. By then it was already well-known that a new bio-pic was being made starring none other than Oscar-winning Jennifer Hudson. In fact, in the last few years before passing away in 2018, Aretha herself had dared/blessed/encouraged Jennifer to play her. As the movie opens, we are introduced to 10 yr. Old Aretha, who is woken at night by her daddy to sing for a group of (mostly church) friends her parents are hosting for dinner. Aretha brings down the house, and before you know it, she is performing at church. In a clever montage, she starts singing "There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood", and young Aretha segues into adult Aretha....

Couple of comments: this movie is the feature debut for director Liels Tommy. She is best known for her work on Broadway. Here she makes the jump to the big screen, with a large production budget and an all-star cast fronted by Jennifer Hudson. The movie is quite good, although a bit slow at times. But the real reason for watching this is of course Jennifer Hudson, who brings a stunning performance. She really IS Aretha Franklin. As a consequence, even though the movie is not without flaws, "RESPECT" has now become the definitive Aretha Franklin biopic, period. I am already going on record that not only Jennifer Hudson will get a Best Actress Oscar nomination, but that she likely will be one of the, if not THE, frontrunner for that race.

As a complete aside, there is the original soundtrack of this movie, featuring Jennifer singing all those Aretha classics. Without the visuals of the movie, the soundtrack isn't nearly as compelling. But wait, there is a solution: in late July, a career-spanning and generous 4 CD box set (81 tracks; 310 min.) simply called "ARETHA" was released. Just like "RESPECT" is now the definitive Aretha Franklin biopic, "ARETHA" became the immediate, ultimate and definitive CD compilation. Bottom line: both "RESPECT" (the film) and "ARETHA" (the CD box) are a winner!

Jennifer Hudson is an excellent actress, and I always thought she would be a great choice to portray Aretha Franklin. It would be no easy task to fully portray Franklin's legacy on screen in an authentic manner, but after having seen the film early at a Fandango advance screening, I'm happy to say that she succeeded. Hudson's acting range is potent and profound. She is able to clearly convey passion, empathy, and emotional challenges where appropriate in the film's narrative. The film attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of most of Franklin's life, from her challenging early childhood until the 1970s, but primarily focuses on the mid-to-late 60s and early 70s. Its narrative structure is a bit choppy and awkwardly paced, although it should be noted that (to state the obvious) no individual's life depicted in a biopic can fit completely neatly into the conventional three-act Hollywood film structure.

To state the obvious, Hudson's leading performance is the true crown jewel of the film. The film does a great job at humanizing Aretha Franklin, while still showing her emotional and substance-related struggles in a realistic way. Supporting performances in the film are quite strong as well. Particularly notable are Forest Whitaker giving a commanding and powerful performance as Franklin's father, and Marlon Wayans portraying her violent, self-centered husband. Hudson's singing voice is great as well, and her performances of songs such as "Respect," "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman," and "Amazing Grace" are superb. Despite the exceptional acting talent on display in the film, "Respect" sometimes waddles a bit too much in formulaic and conventional tropes of biopics. The film sometimes comes off as playing it a bit too safe, and shies away from taking any noteworthy creative risks that could have had greater stakes or emotional impact within the context of the viewing experience. At about 2.5 hours, it runs a bit too long, and there's definitely about 30 minutes worth of scenes in here that do not add much to the overall narrative and could easily have been cut. That said, an awards-worthy lead performance makes the film generally a solid one. Recommended. 7/10.

This is a biopic of legendary performer Aretha Franklin (Jennifer Hudson). Forest Whitaker plays her preacher father C. L. Franklin. Marlon Wayans plays his troublesome husband Ted White.

In the DVD extras, someone claims that this is not a standard cradle to grave biopic. In many ways, this is exactly that. It starts with Aretha as a child and goes to Aretha passing in real life. There is no doubt that Jennifer Hudson has all tools. She's not just a five tool player. She's an all tools player. The question is the very straight forward story telling. This seems to be a story begging to zero in on her 'demon'. A bit of imagination could turn that demon into a surreal character which first hounds her father, then her rapists, her husband, her alcoholism, and even MLK's murder. It's a suggestion. In an aside, the church finale should consists of the real Aretha footage. Again, this seems to be begging for that but maybe they didn't have the copyright. Director Liesl Tommy does transition to the aged Aretha singing Natural Woman which is really a second choice for me. This is a safe biopic starting with the very capable Hudson and the standard story telling.

The film was more of a collection of vignettes than a complete story. It felt very disjointed. Characters appeared and disappeared, and stories were left incomplete. It was difficult to determine Aretha's motives during life changes.