The Color Purple
The Color Purple
Starring Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo
Directed by Blitz Bazawule
In the early 1900s, Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpsai) and her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey) live in an abusive home with their father, whom impregnates Celie on multiple occasions and then claiming he's giving the babies to "God." The girls only have each other, but they're separated when the evil Mister (Colman Domingo) claims Celie as his bride, stealing her away from her only family she's ever known. The marriage is filled with rage, abuse, and neglect, and Mister eventually forces Nettie away for good, although she claims she'll still write to Celie every day.
As the decades pass, a now-grown Celie (Fantasia Barrino) maintains in her loveless abusive marriage with no one to turn to except her outspoken daughter-in-law Sofia (Danielle Brooks), thinking Nettie is long dead because she never got any letters from her. One day they're visited by famed blues singer Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) whom Mister has taken a liking to, and during her stay Celie is granted a reprieve from her abuse. Yet she reveals her abuse to Shug who promises to return and take her away, but after she leaves things get even worse for Celie and Sofia. But as the years keep passing Celie begins finding her own voice, and when Shrug returns she finds a new sisterhood and a new lease on life, giving her the strength to leave Mister and forge her own path in life.
The Good:
"The Color Purple" is an epic, resounding voice for the marginalized, a demonstration of the resilience and perseverance of the human spirit, and the bonds of Black sisterhood that goes beyond blood. It's a high endeavor to span decades of story, but they pull it off with a compelling, personalized story and a stacked A-list cast who give their all. This is all set against the most beautiful Southern backdrop ever put to screen, providing a character all its own, showcasing natural lighting and set designs that feel wholly lived in. There's not one note in this film that falls flat in any tremendous way, and the negatives are slight and few. While not a direct remake of the original, it manages to blend moments of the original plus crowd-pleasing musical numbers from the musical to form a hybrid film that is nearly perfect.
The film is entirely Celie's tale, and the two actresses who play her are unique in the fact that this is both of their feature film debuts, yet you'd be remissed to think that they're seasoned pros. Phylicia Pearl Mpasi plays the younger Celie with this melancholy that's heartbreaking yet also uplifting when it comes to the love she has for her sister Nettie. She speaks volumes through her eyes, and her song is downright powerful. You feel for her from the start, and the connection Mpasi shares with Halle Bailey (who is also a newcomer, her first film being "The Little Mermaid" that came out earlier this year) is electrifying. You feel these two women have been sisters from birth, and their bond is one of the many strengths the film has.
When Celie grows older the role switches to Fantasia Barrino, who played the role on Broadway and is best known to the general audience as the winner of season three of "American Idol" (also known as the same season that featured Jennifer Hudson, future Oscar winner - and possibly Barrino will join her). She's been playing Celie for years so she already has a deep connection to the character, yet she heightens this connection to the audience by how perfectly she plays her. As an adult she hasn't had the gift of being treated as one, so she plays the older Celie with a childlike innocence and naïvety that shows how developmentally underdeveloped she is due to the abuse she endured. Yet she also finds her inner strength and gains the upper hand to leave her abusive past behind and see what the world has to offer, and this is done through youthful eyes of an older woman.
Colman Domingo has had a great year in cinema, previously appearing as the Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin in "Rustin," to which he's on the short-list of Oscar nominees. Here, however, he's anything but civil as the cold, evil Mister who does nothing but get drunk and beats on Celie every chance he gets. He's reprehensible and deplorable, yet not even he is beyond salvation. Domingo does an excellent job at playing such a villain and maintains a dark cloud over Celie for most of her life.
Yet the major scene stealer is Danielle Brooks, who reprises her role as Sofia in the film, a role that earned her a Tony nomination. Sofia is one of the best characters in the film, a no-nonsense woman who knows what she wants and takes it, and doesn't take gruff from anyone. Her rousing musical number is called "Hell no" for a reason, yet she's not immune to the pains of the world. She undergoes a terrible moment that renders her mute, a shell of her former self, before finding her footing again in a moment that had me literally laughing out loud in the theater in pure delight - something I don't normally do. I was really drawn to the strength of her character and how Brooks effortlessly portrayed it, and if she doesn't get a Best Supporting Actress nod I'll be very upset.
The scenery, as I mentioned earlier, is beautiful and lavish, giving off the classic 1900s feel of the South. The sun is a darker shade of hue that doesn't block everything out but also gives a nostalgic feel, and the set designs are impeccable and natural. The songs are catchy, lively, and profound, and the choreography is top-notch.
The Bad:
There's a few small negatives in the film, one of which is the length of the story. It spans decades yet only highlights certain moments, and some of the pacing feels off in spots, but nothing that really detracts you from the story.
The other small negative is, sadly, Taraji P. Henson's performance as Shug. Maybe she thought she had to over-act against the likes of Barrino and Brooks, but she plays Shug as almost a caricature of blues artists of the time: over-the-top, diva-ish, and prideful. It's still not a bad performance but set against the others, hers is the weakest.
The Summary:
Achieving the impossible of combining a beloved classic film, a beloved Broadway musical, and the beloved novel material into a sweeping emotional epic, "The Color Purple" shows what's right with cinema and delivers unforgettable, award-worthy performances.
The Score: A+
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