Nina

The high ratings must be from people unfamiliar with Nina Simone. The makeup looks like Saldana has bad skin. Saldana's acting is passable. But the film is just boring. Saldana's singing lacks the depth of Simone.

So, I'll try to not include the controversy I heard about Star Trek's Zoe Saldana, playing the Infamous Nina Simone, although that's what made me interested in buying the ticket.

Overall, Saldana's performance was just OK. It's not the worse thing I've ever seen, it's not the best performance I've ever seen. It's not a milestone in her acting career, unlike her co-star David Oyelowo's magnificent turn as Doctor Martian Luther King Jr. in the movie, Selma. Mike Epps made an interesting cameo as Richard Pryor in the movie which left me something more than Saldana as Simone.

Nina is a focus on the last eight or so years of Simone's life, which was odd as Saldana (and the make up job they did on her) did not convince me she was a 70 year old woman. Mainly, it centers around the relationship Nina had with her new manager, Clifton Henderson.

It's another one of these films that tells us more about the type of personality the artist is rather than anything about the person's life. It's similar to Don Cheadle's take on Miles Davis in the film Miles Ahead, but that film had some magic in it that this movie does not.

Saldana and the film did an OK job letting us know the type of artist Nina Simone was, but you did not feel the passion behind it. I know it's near impossible to create a motion picture about Nina that would visually do what Simone could do with her musical talents, but I did not feel any effort towards it at all.

So overall, at the moment Saldana still has playing the most ionic woman in Sci-Fi on the top of her resume, while playing the greatest singer of all time will not even register. The make-up was fine and her voice was satisfying, but like I said I was not expected her to sound like Nina Simone, but this movie is not passionate like her music.

Wow, that was a tough watch. Saldana is an appealing and decent actress within her range, but she's way, way out of it here, and given a script and a character that she simply can't do justice to.

It's rare that actors are asked to play older than their age, and for good reason: everyone can remember what it was like being younger, but can only imagine being older. There's no gravitas or presence to Saldana's performance here, and she can't anchor this muddled, tentative film. Since it's entirely about her, well, you see the problem.

And we have to talk about the blackface. Saying "yeah, but it was required for the role" doesn't make it all right. That's how you get Occidentals playing Charlie Chan or Fu Manchu, or girls with less Native American ancestry than Elizabeth Warren playing Comanches.

One rule for all, no exceptions, please.

Probably only 25 minutes that I'm watching this biopic about one of my idols:Nina Simone -> "What a bad television film"."A disaster" ... Zoe Saldana, clearly not up to the character! The allusions to Nina; a revolutionary musician are too few"... I don't care about Mrs Simone torments at the end of her life ! Mostly her relationship with her domestic/manager. (If at least it was "done properly). Plus, all the reproductions of her interviews and concerts : "We do not talk about it "... The film budget is what? $ 200 or something ... Roughly speaking, this full-length feature is a flop ... Let's watch a good documentary :)

After the big hoo-ha about how bad this film is, in particular because of Zoe Saldana's casting, I decided to give this movie a shot.

I know virtually nothing about Nina Simone's life, but this film does not want to portray what her life was during her prime. Instead it relies on itty bitty pieces of dialogue during interviews and conversations with Nina's old friend Richard Pryor. It is set during the last decade of her life, when she is mentally ill, unstably alcoholic and very difficult to tolerate. Clifton (David Oyelowo), the nurse at the mental hospital where she is interred, takes her in, looks after her and eventually becomes her manager.

The real problem with this movie is, glaringly, the time period of Nina's life. It's not a good one, and very little happens in the movie. We start her off as a little girl defying racial segregation so that her parents can sit in the front row. Nothing else is shown of her rise to fame and struggles, which makes the film feel very empty.

One thing I really didn't like is the erasure of Clifton's homosexuality. Although he and Nina are not seen intimate with each other (at one point she calls him the F word when he refuses to have sex with her) there is a small implication. Why couldn't they show everyone he was gay?

The last thing is of course Zoe Saldana as Nina. I personally feel the criticism (and it was extremely scornful) was very unfair. She did the best with what she was given, and she should be praised for it. The problem is not the color of her skin, its the age. She is supposed to be in her sixties, and yet Saldana is actually younger than David Oyelowo! They really couldn't find an older actress?

At times the movie was painfully boring, badly paced and perhaps unintentionally funny. 5 out 10.