By CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB
Los Alamos
“The Color Purple,” the 1982 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker, is now a musical, garnering nominations for every kind of film award. This latest film is based on a 2005 Broadway musical version of the book, reprised on stage in 2015. In this reviewer’s opinion, the musical genre brings insight to these familiar characters and their struggles.
The story of The Color Purple begins in 1917. Celie is the elder stepdaughter of a dry goods store owner whose shop is in an African American community in Georgia. Twice impregnated by her stepfather, Celie has had both her children immediately taken from her by their father and given away. Celie’s little sister Nettie serves to keep Celie’s spirits up.
When a local, banjo-playing landowner named “Mister” asks for Nettie’s hand in marriage, he instead is given Celie. Despised by Mister’s children and abused by him, Celie settles into this new and worse chapter of her life. Clouding their relationship hangs Mister’s memory of and devotion to a jazz singer named Shug Avery.
Early in the film, the young sisters are played by Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid) as Nettie, and introducing Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as Celie; both have the pipes to hold their own in the songs they sing. From the 1920’s through the 1940’s the adult Celie is played by Fantasia Barrino; the 2004 American Idol finalist gets a plum role here as Celie, an abused spouse who eventually finds emancipation through sisterhood.
The eventual sisterhood supporting Celie includes; Taraji P. Henson as Shug (whose “Push Da Button” proves that the comic actress can not only sing but put her whole self into the song); Danielle Brooks as the no nonsense Sofia (her show-stopping song is the appropriately titled “Hell No”); and recording artist H.E.R. as Mary Agnes, known as “Squeak.” When these women get together, Mister and his son Harpo better watch out!
Colman Domingo, who played Ralph Abernathy in Selma, excels as our least favorite character, Mister; he gets a big story arc, however, calling forth Domingo’s deep acting chops. When we get to hear from his father, Ol’ Mister, the 87-year-old Louis Gossett, Jr., we see what shaped Mister. The local pastor, the Reverend Avery, Shug’s father, is played faithfully by David Alan Grier. Later, when Shug shows up with a new husband named Grady, it’s the famous New Orleans musician Jon Batiste taking up the role, and the piano.
This is a star-studded film with lots of familiar faces, wonderful singing and terrific dance numbers. There’s strong faith in God here, too, despite the troubles in Celie’s life. In fact, it’s Shug who tells Celie that God want us to notice whatever beauty we find on our path.
The Color Purple is “Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, sexual content, violence and language.” Indeed, the dance scene in the juke joint is suggestive and not at all subtle.
