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I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Nowadays, there is this trend to turn a famous IP into a musical and, apparently, the next evolution is to make a movie from this musical and, to be honest, this new form of IP recycling is actually rather boring. In this case, the fact that I have never really cared for Steven Spielberg’s version probably didn’t help either. At least, they definitely had a strong cast (Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, Halle Bailey, Ciara, H.E.R., Jon Batiste, Louis Gossett Jr., Whoopi Goldberg). Fantasia Barrino was also a perfect choice to play the main character and she did deliver a solid performance here. Same thing with Danielle Brooks who was even nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in this movie. Visually, it was pretty good and the dancing scenes looked fine as well. Concerning the songs, well, Barrino was a winner of American Idol so she definitely could sing and there were some other strong singers in the cast but, to be honest, none of the songs really blew me away though. Eventually, did this format enhance this story or, in the contrary, was it a misguided choice? I’m still not sure. The point remains that, even as a musical, I’m still not a huge fan of this story. At least, they slightly more developed the romantic link between Celie and Shug Avery than in Spielberg’s version which is, as far as I’m concerned, the most interesting aspect of this tale. However, it was still not much though and, after the day they seemed to have slept together (they might have only slept though), Shug took off and it was never mentioned ever again afterwards which was rather disappointing. Eventually, I should read the book at some time to see if it’s better than all these underwhelming adaptations. Anyway, to conclude, since I don’t really care for musicals, it was hardly surprising that I didn’t really like it but I have to admit that it was a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
6/10
