For Colored Girls (2010)

Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general and women of color in particular.

Director:

Tyler Perry

Writers:

Tyler Perry (screenplay), Ntozake Shange (play)

Stars:

Janet Jackson, Anika Noni Rose, Whoopi Goldberg

14 wins & 16 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kimberly Elise	...	Crystal / Brown
Janet Jackson	...	Jo / Red
Loretta Devine	...	Juanita / Green
Thandie Newton	...	Tangie / Orange
Anika Noni Rose	...	Yasmine / Yellow
Kerry Washington	...	Kelly / Blue
Tessa Thompson	...	Nyla / Purple
Phylicia Rashad	...	Gilda
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Alice / White
Macy Gray	...	Rose
Michael Ealy	...	Beau Willie
Omari Hardwick	...	Carl
Richard Lawson	...	Frank
Hill Harper	...	Donald
Khalil Kain	...	Bill

Storyline

The movie is based on Ntozake Shange's play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf." Unlike the original play which featured only 7 women known by colors performing the collection of 20 poems, the movie has given each of the 20 characters names. Each of the poems deal with intense issues that particularly impact women in a thought-provoking commentary on what it means to be a female of color in the world.

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Plot Keywords:

sex scene | poem | f rated | african american protagonist | three word title | 

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Taglines:

Many voices. One poem.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some disturbing violence including a rape, sexual content and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 November 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$19,497,324, 7 November 2010, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$37,721,949, 16 January 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lionsgate,Tyler Perry Studios,34th Street Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Was a 1975 play, first staged in California. It has also been performed Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and adapted as a book, a television movie to a planned theatrical film.

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Goofs

When the "Lady in Green", Loretta Devine, does her solo of "Someone took my stuff" because her boyfriend walked out on her; she has on two different green earrings.

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Quotes

Jo: Save your "sorry." One thing I don't need are anymore apologies. I got sorry greeting me at the front door. You can keep yours. I don't know what to do with them... I can't even... I have to throw some away. I can't even get to the clothes in my closet for all the sorries. I'm not even sorry about you being sorry.

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Connections

Remake of American Playhouse: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1982)

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Soundtracks

All Day Long (Blue Skies)
Written by Irving Berlin, Avriele Crandle and Estelle (as Estelle Swaray)
Performed by Estelle
Published by Irving Berlin Music Company (ASCAP),
Lil Red Room Publishing (BMI) and Chrysalis Publishing (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Homeschool Records/Atlantic Recording Corp.
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

Successful Stage to Screen Transfer

Tyler Perry has performed a little miracle in transferring Ntozake Shange's exquisite play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" into an opened up and expanded film. The dialogue still is deeply embedded in Shange's poetry but the narrative Perry added makes the stage experience a flowing cinematic story: the result is a powerful film that happens to be populated by some of the finest actresses of today.

The plat cannot be faithfully summarized, as it is a cluster of vignettes of ten women in crisis. Each character is given the name of a color of the rainbow, but they also have real names and the men in their off track lives actually do appear. It would be unfair to single out any one of these actresses as best because their roles are all different and make demands on the actresses in different ways. Whoopie Goldberg is the religiously inclined mother of Thandie Newton (a woman of physical needs that cannot be satisfied despite nightly change of partners) and Tessa Thompson (a high school girl with aspirations crushed by an unwanted pregnancy); Janet Jackson is a bitter, wealthy magazine editor married to the Down Low Omari Hardwick; Loretta Devine is a community service giver in a relationship with the undependable Richard Lawson; Kimberly Elise (breathtakingly magnificent!) is paired with the war-torn PTSD alcoholic and abusive Michael Ealy; Kerry Washington works for child services despite her infertility in her marriage to Hill Harper; Anika Noni Rose is a lovely innocent dance teacher brutally treated by Khalil Kain; Phylicia Rashad is the tenement house manager who is the central mother confessor to her tenants. How these women's lives are interconnected is fascinating as a story/screenplay: how these gifted actresses deliver the poetry of Shange is beyond anyone's expectations.

There are many issues this film deals with - single mother, violence against women, death, loss, partner abuse, etc - and each of the issues is poignant and keenly defined and acted. How this film slipped under the line for awards is anyone's guess. It is not to be missed.

Grady Harp