Genre: Drama, musical
While the vocal brilliance of the cast must be praised, this latest onscreen portrayal of Alice Walker’s phenomenal book, The Colour Purple, lacks the emotional depth of the original 1985 adaptation and joins a long list of movies that have been remade into musicals, much to the chagrin of audiences.
While the vocal brilliance of stars like Fantasia, Halle Bailey and Taraji P. Henson cannot be denied, 18 songs of three to four minutes each, in a film with a runtime of two hours and 21 minutes, is excessive.
If you can get past the musical aspect, a beautiful story of sisterhood, perseverance and love awaits.
Celie (played by Phylicia Pearl Mpasi/Fantasia Barrino) is dealt a hard card in life after the death of her mother.
Her father impregnates her twice and takes her children away, she is forced into a marriage with an abusive older man named Mister (played by Colman Domingo) and gets forcibly separated from her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey/Ciara).
What follows is years of torment, abuse and struggles for Celie, made better only by her unlikely friendships with Shug (played by Taraji P. Henson) and Sophie (Danielle Brooks).
The moments of dialogue where the actors truly shine are brilliant, each member of the star-studded cast showcases their sheer talent with outstanding performances by Barrino and Brooks.
The Color Purple is well shot and many of the camera angles and transitions make the film a pleasurable experience.
Unfortunately, this film lacks the raw emotion, depth and character development that the original had and many plot points make little sense because important details are missing.
Time spent on the singing and dancing could have been used to flesh out the story more.
This film is meant to be enjoyed more for the theatrics but to get the true story of The Color Purple, the 1985 film is highly recommended.
The Color Purple is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
