Let me start with a few housekeeping/pet peeves from my trip to see this film on its release date. First, THIS IS NOT A REMAKE. I will say it for the people in the back again. THIS IS NOT A REMAKE. This is based more so on the book and the Broadway adaptation. I heard a lot of people leaving the theater going, “This is nothing like the movie.” Because it’s not supposed to be, lady! I declare. All the time people spend on social media and they didn’t find that nugget of information. SMH. Second, if your child has not seen the original movie or read the book, don’t bring them. I get it. We Black and we should bring our kids to see Black films. I hear you, but if they have no idea where this comes from, then they will be lost. I sat next to girls who couldn’t have been more than maybe 13 or 15 and the scene with Shug and Celie kissing each other confused them. Shows that they were not paying close attention to the film they were watching and/or did not read the book. Educate those children or leave them at home, PLEASE.
If you have read enough posts here, you know I loathe two things: subtitles and musicals. This is a musical, and I have to be honest. I didn’t need all that singing. Yes, I get that this is the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, but the songs, for me, felt like they cut the emotion in the film. Again, for me, I think this movie would have been just fine with the numbers being the soundtrack. I grew up on a lot of Tyler Perry plays, and I remember always fast forwarding through the musical numbers. (To be fair, I do love certain numbers and must watch them whenever I watch that play.) This version of The Color Purple felt like when I was watching those plays on DVD. Something so beautiful would be happening on screen and I was sitting in my seat like, “Please, don’t sing about it,” and they would. The movie is two hours and 21 minutes long and I see why. I feel it’s hard to do a dramatic musical and I enjoy it. The music didn’t add to the drama for me. It just repeated whatever just happened in the scene. I just didn’t need it. Sorry y’all. The singing is a no from me.
I forgot some people were even in this movie. Deon Cole is unrecognizable in this film, and I am so proud of his transformation. That’s what I love to see from the people I grew up watching. I remember watching Deon Cole on ComicView (a show I was not supposed to be watching) reading jokes off a piece of paper to “Black-ish” to being Celie and Nettie’s dad in The Color Purple. Halle Bailey…phenomenal. As a random person in this world, I hope she knows that we are immensely proud of her. I never want to compare her to her sister but I do see a bit of her sister’s spark in her when she’s seen in the movie asserting herself. HER was in the movie for 12 seconds and I was expecting more. I don’t know why I expected more because her character is not supposed to be in the movie that long, but it’s HER. You can’t bring someone into a musical movie that has that kind of talent and let her sing for two seconds. I was sad. Forgot Ciara was in this film. I don’t think she even really posted much about her being in the film. Granted, she comes at the end of the film, but still. Also, unpopular opinion, Ciara’s voice didn’t go with everyone else’s. When she sang with Fantasia at the end, it didn’t sound quite like it did when the sisters sang in the beginning of the film. GIVE DAVID ALAN GRIER HIS THINGS. Any time I see him on screen, I smile. I absolutely love him in anything and everything he does. He wasn’t in here long, but he was a joy to see.
Fantasia Barinno will get her things. She is another one in this film that I’ve watched from the beginning. Strangely enough, call it fate or call it whatever you want, Fantasia and Celie’s stories are one in the same. Now, you can argue Celie is every woman but hear me out. Fantasia had a Lifetime movie out years ago made about her life. Most of what Celie goes through in her life, I remember Fantasia talking about going through the same in hers. I felt more for Celie in this film because I could feel the emotion more. Obviously, her singing was out of this world, and at times, I was waiting for her to kick her shoes off. I don’t know if she’ll win the Oscar, but I do smell a nomination.
I thought I would hate Colman Domingo as Mister more and I did not, which is a blessing because I love him. Every time he did something, I was like, “You asshole!” They made Harpo less stupid in this one. Thank you for that. In the original, Harpo always felt like he was dumb for no reason. With Corey Hawkins in the role, Harpo just felt like a man trying to figure life out. I watched an Actor on Actor with Taraji and Jeffery Wright, and based on how she described her journey to Shug Avery, I can see how she took that journey to make that character her own. We forget all the time that she can sing and it was refreshing to hear her do what she started doing when she was in college. Now, we’re going to want to see more of her singing in the future.
Danielle Brooks will be winning whatever she is nominated for. Mark my words. (And if she doesn’t, I will riot.) Remember, when Pousey died in Orange is the New Black? Remember those emotional performances we got from her character then? Take how you felt then with those scenes, when you first saw them, and maximize it by 1,000. I know the film surrounds Barinno, but she will be winning an Oscar this coming season.
If you’re a regular here, you know what I’m about to say. This movie did not need to be two hours and some change long. If you’ve seen the original, then you know there was a lot that wasn’t in this film because they had to make room for the musical numbers. At a certain point in the movie, it felt rushed. A lot of times, the musical numbers would end strangely. It was almost like the number ended and the movie forgot there was a story we had to follow. Those extra 20 some minutes could have been cut.
Last but not least, the scene that I thought was actually done better than the original was the family dinner scene. Jon Batiste is unintentionally hilarious, which makes it all the more realistic. For me, what makes this scene better than the original is the fact that it felt like a real Black dinner gone wrong. If you are a Black person reading this or even a person of another ethnicity that has been to a dinner that was fine when it started and then that one person started and it ruined everyone’s night, you know exactly what I mean. The action made it better and more believable to me; although I must say that Whoopi’s acting in the scene is better than Barinno’s. However, when she picks up the knife and lungs at him and the entire family is holding her, I said to myself, “Ah, a traditional, dysfunctional family dinner. Nostalgia.” I then proceeded to laugh out loud.
Speaking of Whoopi, I almost cried when I saw her in this film, but it made me look for everyone else who was in the original. I was sad when Danny Glover was not Mister’s dad. I adore Louis Gossett, Jr., but they set a precedent with Whoopi early on. That was a miss for the film.
If you love musicals, I hate you. LOL. Joking, but let me know what you all thought of this version of The Color Purple. I would like to scold a friend of mine who said she also doesn’t enjoy musicals but that this musical was well worth it. Dare I say, the continuous singing and rapping in Hamilton that no one told me about was better and less tortuous.
