Joyful Noise

Excellent Gospel music, and top shelf humor. A script of depth too, touching on the human condition and the pitfalls of being young, nice to see a film where the main characters are talented woman.

I went with friends to see JOYFUL NOISE, the film starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. What can I say about it?

Predictable? Yep.

Formulaic? For the most part.

Manipulative? Definitely! One particular segment had me sobbing in my seat.

But the music rocked. The film also had unexpected flashes of humor that were laugh-out-loud funny. Though it wasn't a masterpiece (for one thing, editing was sloppy in places), I enjoyed it and thought it was well worth seeing.

Ok, so my biases out the way: I'm not into Christian films per se, but I love Queen Latifah in most of her films. She doesn't fail to disappoint, being charismatic and larger than life whilst still being humble. Her daughter in the film has a great voice (is a singer herself in real life) with a Michael Jackson cover that brought tears to my eyes.

The love interest aspect is fun and sweet, there's a sub plot about love and loss, and just some great modern Christian singing and performance. I'm sure Christians will get more out of this, but anyone will feel sympathetic for this group of personalities on their musical journey.

This film really stuck in my head, and left me with a great positive vibe. It was well filmed and executed. Look - it's no subtle or complex bit of social commentary or story telling, but yet it's not the bland rubbish like Mama Mia. One of those films which I can watch again and again, and that's very rare for me.

Joyful Noise did have a some good moments, and tried to give a positive message. Felt a lot like a Disney Channel movie and there were things that seemed disjointed or just didn't make sense.

For example, almost nothing is said between Latifah's character and her daughter, when she forbids the girl to see her boyfriend, later, they have long blowup scene when the daughter simply wants to leave their hotel room because her mother is snoring. The mother, brother and others in town are frightened and worried for a long time - the daughter has disappeared and no one has any idea where she is. Her boyfriend had just taken her several hours away to see her father at his military base. Obviously the minute the father saw her he'd have called the mother, what, no one has cell phones? And the food fight between the two leads in a restaurant, extremely stupid.

Kids who are Disney Channel/High School Musical fans would like it, so something parents and kids could watch together, and adults will enjoy the music much more, it was very enjoyable. My favorite part was Queen Latifah singing "Fix Me Jesus.", I hadn't been familiar with this old spiritual, and it really touched me.

I love Dolly Parton, musically and in films like Steel Magnolias. Sadly, she's had so much 'work' done it was hard to look at her. Still like her, though, and other characters were likable, so...not too bad, not afraid to use spiritual music and had some good things to say.

Storyline was a bit familiar, but it is presented in a new, fresh way. There is a strong main storyline and other small background stories which link back to it. The stories are touching and show great sensitivity. Very well played. Even though it takes place in the south, there is a rich diversity in the movie. It paints a lovely picture of the new south. Dolly Parton is charming as always. Queen Latifah is perfect in this role. They play off each other beautifully. Kiki Palmer and Jeremy Jordan are fantastic and fresh. The singing and choreography are top notch. Constant flowing entertainment. Never a dull moment. Well worth my time and money.