I still remember when I first saw The Color Purple (1985). I was a young kid, and it was the first time the film was to be shown on television. I could be off, but I think it was the CBS Sunday night movie. It was LONG because the movie was long, and they had to have commercials. The movie felt like it took almost a whole day. It was the same feeling I had watching The Ten Commandments or The Wizard of OZ. It was like an entire family thing that night; my grandparents were there, and my Aunt came over with my Mom and great-grandmother. This was before I even knew who Steven Speilberg was, and I only knew Whoopi tangentially. That film imprinted on my mind from then on, and I couldn’t forget that film. Later on, I learned it was based on a novel of the same name by Alice Walker, but I was happy with just the film. The fantastic performances and the cinematography stuck with me for years and years. When The Color Purple re-entered the zeitgeist with the musical. Honestly, I thought turning this story into one with bursts of song sounded jarring as I was so attached to the old movie. I never saw the play, as I find it hard to see popular Broadway plays (too expensive!), so my interest was piqued when they announced they’d be making the musical into a film adaptation.
For those who don’t know the story, The Color Purple is mainly about a woman named Celie who lives in the US South in the early 20th century. She lives a harsh life with her sister Nettie and her father, who abuses her. After being essentially traded to a man in town named simply Mister, she then lives a terrible life under the thumb of another abusive man. Her only solace is her sister, whom Mister drives away after she declines his advances. From there, you see this woman’s life from her teenage years until late middle age and the other people in her community, along with the other women she knows, who also have much to deal with in this harsh world. Director Blitz Bazawule is the one with the herculean task of making a remake of a beloved film and adapting a beloved Broadway musical. They do a good job overall, even if I feel things feel a bit rushed in parts that might be to fit more of the story within a more manageable runtime for audiences. The look of the film is very warm, and he’s able to keep so much of the performance on the screen without it becoming overwhelming. I was quite impressed with this being his second theatrical feature.
The unsung hero of this film for me is Fatima Robinson, the choreographer and, to me, the best choreographer for at least the last 25 or so years. I’ve seen her work on so much of the significant Black entertainment for the last few decades that I knew it was her just by the dancers’ movements in the film. The choreography was so expressive and seemed to mash together modern dancing with Black dancing from that time, along with African dances, so well that it was able to tell subtle parts of the story visually that helped some of the pacing issues I had with it. The acting in this film is some of the best I’ve seen all year. Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, who played Celie when she was a teen, was captivating on screen. She brings a light to the character that really helps to make you empathize with Celie as you see her through her life of hardship. Fantasia Barrino, being the American Idol, pretty much sings everyone else out of space. Her Celie is very much different from Whoopi’s 1985 interpretation – with so much acting in her face and body language. This woman isn’t old, but she’s worn down and it’s completely told to you by her physical acting. Her face lights up the screen when she sings, and makes me look forward to listening to the soundtrack at a later time. And while I say all that, Danielle Brooks, who plays Sofia, the role that Oprah made iconic and made her a star, will do the same for Brooks. She wrestles away all focus and attention from anyone else when she is on screen. She all around kills it, and when I watched it, I felt that what I was watching was a clear Oscar nomination performace and possible win. There aren’t any performances I’ve seen this year better than hers, and very few that even equal it.
Now let’s talk about the men a bit; I was a bit thrown off by them because both Coleman Domingo and Corey Hawkins do tremendous work, but they are also less awful to me than the interpretations I’m used to. Hawkins plays Mister’s son Harpo, and he’s played more like a young man who really makes one terrible mistake after getting bad advice and a bad example of how to be a man but, in the end, is a heroic feeling man with some great singing by Hawkins and dancing as well. Willard Pugh’s take in the 80s was just kind of an idiot and a bit of a sniveling henchman of Mister. This might be a flattening take as he does to improve a little towards the end of the film, but he, just like Danny Glover playing his father, was just purely terrible. They are just mean and horrendous men. I saw no redemption in them and not a need to have one either, as I didn’t see them as deserving. Speaking of Mister, Domingo is so damn charismatic that I couldn’t entirely utterly hate the character in this. Domingo is killing it this year in everything he’s in. Then we have Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery, and while her take is different, she was great on-screen in both acting and singing. Bring a largeness to the character that feels more brash and enticing as an audience member in that world. She has some great scenes with Fantasia throughout the film.
I envy a bit the people who get to experience this story for the first time on film. I can’t, and I know that affected my experience and perspective on reviewing this. The Color Purple (2023) is a very well-made and engrossing musical film. I feel this will hit the mark perfectly for many, but for the small minority, this won’t reach as high as the older film or the book.
Score: B+
RIOTUS 