Respect

Respect
Starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald
Directed by Liesl Tommy

The biopic subgenre can be very difficult to pull off successfully, as generally the movie doesn't do justice to its namesake, resulting in a subpar film that seems like a live-action Wikipedia page put on the screen. The subgenre follows the traditional formula of exploring the person's youth, rise to fame, hidden pitfalls, inner demons, and eventual comeback before ending with a "Star Wars" introduction-like style of words on the screen that finishes out the Wikipedia search and giving some videos and photos of the actual person the story tells about. More often than not, these kinds of films fade into obscurity, but there are some that rise the ranks and becomes something transcendent, like "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Straight Outta Compton," "8 Mile," and "Walk the Line." Other biopics blend real-life with stylized storytelling that strays wildly from the formula, much like "Rocketman" and "Blinded by the Light." "Respect" - a biopic about the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin - unfortunately falls into the former category, a paint-by-numbers, Wikipedia-style film that glosses over pretty much all the important aspects of Franklin's life and hits the main bullet points without showcasing the emotions or feelings that you'd expect. Still, what elevates this film above others like "The U.S. vs. Billie Holliday" is the fact that the actress - Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson - completely nails the performance and proves that she is no one-trick pony, but produces a vocally powerful film.

As a young child, Aretha Franklin (Skye Dakota Turner) had a singing voice more fit for a thirty-year-old, and her parents loved to show her off to their famous musician friends including Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sam Cooke, but there's a darker side to her young life when she's sexually abused by a friend of her father's, the Reverend C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker). This moment traumatizes the young girl, along with the sudden death of her mother Barbara (Audra McDonald), which sends Aretha into a stage of silence for weeks after. With the help of fellow Reverend James Cleveland (Tituss Burgess), Aretha finds her voice again and returns to the church to sing.

Now grown up, Aretha (Jennifer Hudson) has two young children and is pursuing her career in music, when she meets manager Ted White (Marlon Wayans), a man who her father disapproves of. The two begin a relationship as Aretha is signed to Columbia Records, but can't find a hit because her father (who's also serving as her manager) doesn't supply her the right songs. She fires her father and hires White as her new manager, and the two get married and have a son, but White's anger and drinking results in Aretha getting beaten. After she's dropped from Columbia Records, she's picked up by Atlantic Records, and she finally finds success thanks to the help of her sisters, giving birth to songs like "I Never Loved a Man" and "Respect." Yet as her star begins to rise, her demons from the past continue to surface that spirals the singer downward, as she continually steps farther from God and closer to her own demons.

"Respect" could've imploded under its own desire to gloss over every aspect of the legendary singer's life, and to an extent it really did the Queen of Soul a disservice. A woman as powerful, impactful, and talented as Aretha Franklin deserved so much more than what the film delivered, as it just hopped from one moment to another without showing any real emotion, reasoning, or reconciliation from them. Again, it's nothing more than a Wikipedia page dedicated to the singer, set to the big screen.

And yet...what makes the film spectacular is Jennifer Hudson, whom was self-appointed by Franklin herself before her death in 2018 to play her in a biopic. You can sense the reverence Hudson has for Franklin, as she painstakingly muddles through the flat script, offering Oscar-worthy moments that feels almost disjointed in a film of this flat-line caliber. She sangs Aretha Franklin, embodying her essence and power as only she could, delivering chill-inducing moments and times of sheer awe and devotion from the audience, most notably her final performance of "Amazing Grace" that Franklin sang at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church (and also when she most visually resembles the artist). It's still hard to believe that J-Hud got her start on the third season of "American Idol" (where she auditioned to Franklin's "Share Your Love With Me"), and she rose to prominence with her Oscar-winning performance in another musical biopic, "Dreamgirls," before singing at Franklin's funeral. So being able to portray the icon seems like second-nature, and Hudson will easily earn another Oscar nomination for her transcendent performance.

The remaining cast does admirably, but this is easily Hudson's film, and she completely dominates the screen. Even when she's dealing with a razor-thin script, she manages to pull out the emotions and power that lie deep within her to give a rousing performance, where Franklin herself would've been proud (probably not with the overall film, but Hudson's performance).

Apart from that, the film delves into the traditional tropes of a famous celebrity.  Rough childhood? Check. Overbearing father? Check. Unresolved issues? Yep. Failed, abusive marriages? Yes. Alcoholism? Yep. Turning point? Obviously. You can move to the beats of the tropes like the beats to a song, and while Hudson's performance rises above the script given to her, it still results more often than not in flat-line glossing over of the more important beats.

Due to Jennifer Hudson's deep respect for the Queen of Soul, "Respect" rises above the traditional by-the-books musical biopic and becomes a memorable, powerful film that gives Aretha Franklin the respect she always deserved.

The Score: A-

A little bonus: Jennifer Hudson's audition from "American Idol"