La couleur pourpre

This is a musical adaptation of the stage musical based on the book. After the 1985 classic film, the hurdle gets to be quite high. It is also part of the recent trend of surprise musicals. They are not pushing the fact that these are musicals and the less informed audience members are getting surprised. This has great actors doing all the skills. It is technically great. It looks great. The performers are working at top notch level. It is very choreographed stage musical and that may be the problem.

I am still unsettled on this idea. The subject matter is so dark that the musical genre takes away some of the needed grittiness. It's not only a musical. It's the old timey choreographed energetic dancing type. It is showy Broadway and that overwhelms the dark complex story. Yet others do it well, but I would suggest that they always do it better on the live stage. There is an artificiality to the production when it's on the screen. It can't help but feel fake.

Ok so I thought long & hard about my viewing of The Color Purple last night. I feel it's a bit sacrilegious to say it wasn't my favorite movie. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I will tell you why, spoiler free!

First the good- the acting, cinematography & production were stellar! Costume & set design were top notch & the vocal performances were great. I LOVE Danielle Brooks and honestly wished she was on screen more (more into that later). Fantasia's acting performance was great, as was the rest of the cast. Colman Domingo, who played Mister, was good too.

Now the bad... ok, so this is a musical, which isn't an issue but I feel that part of the story was lost/glossed over, especially Celie's & Sophia's strife, for the sake of song & dance. I never read the book, nor saw the Broadway production so I can't only compare it to the Spielberg 80's production, which (I may add) is one of my favorite movies. I feel a hard time connecting with the characters and their story seemed to have gotten diminished. I think another 30 minutes could have easily been added to the movie to help with character development instead of displaying year stamps to show the passing of time. It felt too play-like in some parts too.

Celie had a messed up life (putting it mildly to avoid spoilers) which you kinda felt it but not really. Her story felt very rushed with a quick conclusion that felt a bit weak to me. Same with Sophia. Danielle Brooks is very comfortable in the Sophia role & played her so well, that her lack of screen time was felt. She dominated the scenes she was in but felt her character was thrown in a dark hole to just pop up every now & then to remind you she existed. Taraji P. Henson was good as Shug Avery but even she felt toned down, especially her relationship with the pastor, played by David Alan Grier.

I don't know... I love these characters. This movie felt like the abbreviated version of the story. I'm sure anyone who has never seen the original (or hasn't seen it in a long time) would really enjoy this. This movie will most likely be nominated for a bunch of awards. The Spielberg 80's production was nominated for 11 Academy Awards & woefully won none. The movie was robbed that year and should have won at least one. Whoopi Goldberg's (she should have won), Oprah's, & Danny Glover's performances are a hard act to follow but those that filled their shoes did a wonderful job.

The best way for me to describe the story was to compare it to episodic tv where a problem arose & was quickly solved within the 30 minute episode. Granted, the movie is much longer but there were a lot of problems. It seriously felt rushed. It lacks heart. I ball my eyes out at the end of Spielberg's version, but not this one.

Danielle Brooks is someone to keep your eye on (loved her in Orange is the New Black as Tastee). I will be rooting for her!

So, that's how I felt. If anything, the movie made me want to read Alice Walker's book even more. It's good & I will recommend it to people who I think the original may be a bit too much for them to handle, but I really will push the original film to get a better dramatic tellling of The Color Purple.

It's certainly possible that the core story of The Colour Purple just doesn't do anything for me. Because I'm not a huge fan of Spielberg's movie either but at least I thought it was a consistent vision. It may have devolved into misery porn for me after a while but at least it was tonally consistent misery porn. That's not something I can say for this new movie because I can't remember the last time I felt this much tonal whiplash watching a film.

Because the choice to tell this story as a musical wasn't entirely successful for me. Because for as well produced and performed as these sequences are they are in constant clash with the overwhelmingly heinous actions taken against these characters. These women can go from experiencing physical, lawful and sexual abuse only for the filmmakers to jarringly cut to a highly choreographed, energetic musical sequence. It rarely feels smooth and it constantly makes the film feel as if it's at war with itself for what it wants to be.

Those sequences really are gorgeously produced and performed to their credit though as is the entire film. All though often to its detriment, there's energy through every single performance and shot in this film and I really appreciate that they didn't revert to the bare minimum of shot/reverse shot even for even simple dialogue scenes. But for as incredible as these performances are, character wise this script personally left a lot to be desired.

It makes sense that this main character is as passive as she is given the abuse she suffers but it took too long for her arc to come to fruition. Because the only time she ever takes any agency is through other characters. This might work for where she starts the film but it just robs the character of any real development. Supporting characters are constantly swooping in to make her important life choices for her, rather than having her actually receiving any growth of her own, by the time she finally starts making her own choices not only does it feel unearned but also far too late in the film to feel satisfying.

The resolution of her character arc might've been unearned but it pales in comparison to how these male abusers are treated. The husband characters played, admittedly very well, by Colman Domingo and Corey Hawkins are portrayed as abusive to quite honestly ridiculous levels. Domingo's character is basically just portrayed as evil with almost no nuance or depth and Hawkins is written as wholly ignorant in a way that could've made sense but the entire resolution to those characters totally fumbles their entire arcs. There are elements of generational trauma given but it's not explored nearly deeply enough to justify their actions.

The script makes them horrific abusers from almost their very introduction and in the third act the filmmakers have the gall to try and redeem them. Not only does it fall totally flat but I actually found it fairly insulting as a viewer. Forgiveness should have limits but at the very least it should make sense from a writing perspective. Nothing in the first two acts gives any sense that these characters deserve redemption, nor that any other character would forgive them, and it made a large part of the last third totally infuriating to watch.

The Colour Purple was a frustrating experience for me. I may not totally connect with this story but I had far too many issues from a writing perspective to give the film the benefit of the doubt. It is an extremely well produced version of a deeply flawed script. It's completely lacking in depth or nuance and it's totally eye rolling in how it depicts the trauma of it's characters. Musical's are totally capable of dealing with dark subject matters but it's all down to tone and it honestly felt like this script had no barring on how it wanted to portray this story.

The Color Purple novel is one of the greatest pieces of American literature. The film adaptation a masterpiece worth of a 10/10.

What is presented in this iteration of the novel and the film, a musical version has to be one of the worst musicals to ever be adapted to film.

There original film has musical numbers that are magical and memorable. That elevate the story and bring a soul and substance. This musical version has no memorable moments. The strongest being 'Hell, No" which unfortunately lands flats. Fantasia's 'I'm Here' is another powerful track but gets lost in the mix of what are essential filler tracks that have been through the Disneyfication machine. The musician H. E. R. Barely gets to offer her incredible voice to the ensemble.

The story plods along at times incoherently. The rawness of the novel, left out presumably to making it 'family friendly' which is a major mistake. The rawness of this story, or this novel, of these iconic and remarkable characters is the foundation of the entire point of why the colour of Purple is so important as an analogy of God and His Grace.

Each actor shines, but the direction is so lost these incredible actors moments get lost with them. It's hard not to keep one's memory from harking back to the powerful performances from the original film. Nothing can erase the majesty of that film.

A very disappointing outcome that just leads to the conclusion that this musical project just doesn't work.

My Rating 6.5/10

I'm a as huge fan of Broadway musicals only a few transfer successfully when they are adapted to the cinema screen .

I didn't get to see the stage version of this musical so I can't comment except to say in my opinion this adaptation although brimming with a very talented cast didn't really work for me .

I read that 13 songs were cut from the original Broadway stage version so it can hardly be considered an authentic version of the Broadway musical .

The composer of the additional music for this movie Kris Bowers has added a few pleasant but forgettable songs .

I felt this version of the original story by Marsha Norman was disjointed missing the emotional aspect of the 1985 movie and that the songs in the movie interrupted the flow of the story.

It's the same story of a black Southern woman Celie struggling to find her identity after suffering abuse from her father and abusive husband over four decades .

Celie with the help of her sisters and an unexpected inheritance escape her abusive husband and is reunited with her stolen children.

I felt the emotional impact was trivialised or diminished a little by adding music and songs to the mix.

The ensemble cast is impressive headed by Fantasia Barrino as Celie the role that Whoopi Goldberg who has a cameo in this version received a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1986. The role of Sophia played excellently in this version by Danielle Brooks also earned Oprah Winfrey an Oscar nomination in 1986 for her portrayal of Sophia.

Other impressive performances from Taraji P. Henson as the flamboyant Shug Avery and Colman Domingo as the menacing Mister helped make The Colour Purple entertaining for me .

Oprah Winfrey is co producer with Steven Spielberg who directed the 1986 version.

This version directed by Blitz Bazawule cost an estimated $USD 100,000,000 to bring to the screen .

The original 1986 version cost an estimated $15,000,000 and was a huge success grossing $ 98,500,000 it will be interesting to see how the musical film version performs at the box office.

The Colour Purple musical version for me was like attending an Evangelical Baptist revival meeting where sinners repent and are miraculously transformed ,it's a little too preachy for me.