Sparkle

There's an indisputable star of this synthetically watchable 2012 melodrama, and it's neither the late Whitney Houston in her last role nor Season 6 "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks. It's relatively unknown British actress Carmen Ejogo (Maya Rudolph's sister in "Away We Go") who explodes off the screen in the meaty, scene-stealing role of Sister, the hell-raising eldest of a trio of daughters to Emma Anderson, an uptight, church-going woman who raised them on her own. Emma is Houston's supporting role, and while she proves she had the makings of a solid character actress, there is an unfortunate shroud of irony in her presence given her own tragic, tabloid-saturated life was itself a cautionary tale about the lure of drugs in show business. This time in the part Lonette McKee played superbly in the 1976 original, Ejogo inhabits the character living out the nightmare of drug addiction and spousal abuse.

The rest of the movie is mostly by the numbers. It opens in 1968, a decade later than the original movie's story, with Sister and her little sister Sparkle sneaking out to a nightclub headlined by a period- costumed Cee Lo Green in a cameo appearance. Sister vamps her way through an original song by Sparkle, which attracts the attention of an aspiring record producer named Stix. He encourages them to shoot for the big time, so they convince level-headed sister Dee to make it a trio decked out sequins, wigs and false eyelashes in order to become the next Supremes. What struck me is how eerily the three women look like the original Supremes line-up with Sparks resembling Florence Ballard and Ejogo looking like a sultry cross between Diana Ross and Beyoncé. Of course, their newfound success comes with heartache, as Sister takes up with a smooth albeit vicious stand-up comic named Satin, and Sparkle struggles between family devotion and her burgeoning love for Stix.

Naturally Emma is constantly worried that her girls will repeat the same mistakes she made when she tried to make it as a singer only to be spit out by the music industry. That means Houston spends most of her limited screen time either fretting about her family or being self-righteous about her religious convictions. The dinner table scene between her and Ejogo is the movie's best scene laying bare the deep-seeded resentment Sister has for her mother and providing a flash of grief over a line that reminds you how Houston died. The melodrama is laid on pretty thick, especially during Sister's downward spiral, but director Salim Akil ("Jumping the Broom") and his wife, screenwriter Mara Brock Akil, balance it with just enough lighter moments. The songs, of course, are what matters the most, and smartly, Curtis Mayfield's original compositions have been retained with the standouts being "Hooked on Your Love", "Look into Your Heart" and especially "Something He Can Feel" which Ejogo performs with sultry conviction.

The new songs by R. Kelly are not nearly as memorable since they sound too contemporary for the period. Sadly, Houston sings only once in character, the spiritual stand-by, "His Eye Is on the Sparrow", and limited to her lower register, her coarsened voice, while emotionally impactful, is vocally a mere shadow of her once-beautiful pipes. Sparks gets to sing a lot more with a predictably booming voice, and she delivers an unaffected turn in the title role. Mike Epps gives a strong performance as Satin, and his scenes with Ejogo echo similarly volatile scenes in "What's Love Got to Do with It?" As Stix, Derek Luke does much better work than Philip-Michael Thomas in the original. Tika Sumpter provides some memorably defiant moments as Dee, the one sister who could take or leave the music. The movie runs too long at 116 minutes, but between Houston's death and Ejogo's star-making turn, it takes on a greater depth than the musical nostalgic trip it was originally designed to be.

I have to say that I liked this version of Sparkle better than the original and I am definitely glad that they changed the story up a bit. This film is very predictable, but I did not care. I think that the cast that was assembled for this film did an excellent job. I have to admit that my main reason for going to see this film was because I wanted to see Whitney Houston in her swan song performance. Whitney (Emma) did an outstanding job in this film and I have to admit that when she sang I got a little (okay, a lot) choked up. Not just because she was singing but because I realized how much I missed her. Jordan Sparks (Sparkle) was made for this role. With this being her film debut, I am sure that we will be seeing a lot more of Jordan on screen. Carmen Ejogo (Sister) almost stole the show along with Mike Epps (Satin). Both were captivating and although you knew from the start where this relationship was heading, it did not matter because you wanted to see it play out. When Michael Beach (Rev. Bryce) hit the screen, I was looking at him and I knew that I had seen him on screen before, but I just could not place him. Whoever did his make-up did a darn good job. Tika Sumpter (Dolores) has come a long way since her days on the television soap One Life to Live. She is the "grounded" sister of the bunch and demonstrates that by having clear goals set and a strong sense of self. Derek Luke (Stix) is the group's manager and Sparkle's love interest who is just trying to do the right thing. I do have to say that there were some faux pas in the film. There were times that the group was singing without mikes and the half-naked dress would have never been acceptable during that time (I don't think). By the way, there was a women sitting in my row that was singing along with all the songs that she remembered (I was cracking up). Do I think that this will be the film of the year? No, but I do think that Director Salim Akil did a good enough job to warrant the price of a ticket. One last thing, I also got choked up again when Jordan sang at the conclusion of the film. I will be downloading that one. I give this film green light.

Sparkle is a low rent version of Dreamgirls so to speak a remake of an unremarkable film form the 70s is a bad film make no mistake about it. The direction is very amateur, the cinematography is crap and the performances are mostly questionable but the film has its charms as well as it's good moments. And although the film is way melodramatic and unintentionally funny at parts it still manages to be entertaining and consistently engaging. The film centers on a trio of sisters in a band called well "Sisters" lol. The plotting movers along expectedly as they have a minor rise to fame while dealing with their overprotective mother, love, drugs, sex and domestic abuse. But the film also delves a little deeper into the intricate relationships between them due most to the solid performance from Carmen Ejogo as Sister she's sultry and seemingly self centered but underneath that she's extremely protective of her sisters she basically raised as her mother had problems. Because of that her position in the group and her family is a difficult, multi layered one and the best exploration is done there. Everything else feels a little forced and flimsy. I don't wanna be to hard on the film because for the most part I enjoyed it and maybe thats because I enjoy lifetime movies. It has it's good moments and it's bad and the best I can say about Whitney Houston's involvement in the film is that she was a very talented woman earlier on in her career and I hope she's at peace now. Although a mixed bag there is enough here to merit a recommendation if this type of melodramatic, musical period piece appeals to you. I'd also like to say that even though the film is set in the past it never feels that way. The consistency is off as well as the logic and it feels very modern with some retro costumes. The film doesn't much sparkle as have a dull shine. 3/5

I'm seeing ghosts! At least I thought I was when I saw that Whitney Houston was starring in a movie. However, I haven't received the gift to see dead people, nor have I gone crazy. Instead I went to see the latest musical drama entitled Sparkle, a movie about an African American girl of the same name. Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) has a dream to make it big as a musician, but her stage fright and lack of confidence leaves her hiding in the shadows while her sister Sister(Carmen Ejogo) lights up the stage. To her luck, a young upcoming agent named Stix (Derek Luke) pursues Sparkle and her sisters and attempts to help make them stars in Motown. However, Sparkle's life has some complications that will test her character and squash her dreams, especially from her mother (Houston). Will she succeed?

Does it sound interesting to you? It didn't to me, but I went to this film hoping to be surprised or impressed by something. As usual, we'll start with the things that did impress me in this film and the first thing I'll mention is the setting. Tristar pictures did a nice job bringing the late 60's Motown world to life with all of its funky soul and gospel power. The club scene at the beginning is a just the start of the impressive scenery work of the group and helps bring the audience into the world a little bit. Throw in some well designed outfits and classic mannerisms to help spice up things and you get an impressive artificial MoTown. Speaking of outfits, the wardrobe department applied their skills well as each of the three sisters wore their own style in both clothes and hair styles. Various jokes and cultural reference spanned off of the outfits (most of which was clever and cute), and from how the older audience members were reacting seemed to take them back to the good times.

If setting and outfits aren't your cup of tea, then the next strength would probably be the music of this movie. I'll warn you now that this movie is all about the soul, jazz, and blues music and those who would rather stick carrots in their ears than listen to this music should avoid it. From the start Cee-Lo Green gets the score pumping with an upbeat, and surprisingly clean, jazz song that will get you rocking in your seat. After that the music goes into a variety of emotion filled blue tunes, a couple of upbeat hits, and of course one or two gospel like melodies that may you have clapping in awe. While I'm not the biggest fans of these styles, I have to admit that these girls can sing. Sparks in particular puts her chords to the test as she hits high pitched notes that drag on for half a minute. Her powerful voice and spirit in her numbers captures the emotion of the tune, somehow bringing her thoughts and passion to life. Ejogo has some pipes as well, but her numbers are more of a storytelling/entertaining bit that made some of the audience members howl in delight at her gorgeous body. As you can guess Houston does well too, but she has only one song on the list that has some power to it, but plays little purpose other than showing off talent. One last thing to mention is that the songs were selected to coincide with the attitude of the movie at that point. Happy moments had the girls singing upbeat numbers, while sadder parts of the story had blues and soul music to help mirror the dismay and redemption. It's artistic, sappy, and cliché, but it's something I have to give props to for helping drive the movie along.

Now let me discuss the weaknesses of the film. For one thing this drama surprisingly has little character and story development for such a cast. Sure there is the main plot story of Sparkle wanting to become a star, but aside from that the shallow subplots, love interests, and backstory are cheated out. From the trailers you might know that the girls' mother failed in the music industry, but Houston's character never really told us the details of what happened. Another sister had career desires, but they just skimmed over that and showed very little struggle or challenge to her goals. There is one positive to this shallow story/character design and that is less time dwelling on a rather stale drama. Skipping on these details again denies the audience story for their money, it helps get them to the musical songs (and consequentially the ending) faster. Unfortunately this fast pace fails as one gets closer to the end, where they then decided to drag out the painfully slow details. While you finally get a few happy ties to the story, by that point I just didn't care from the spiraling downfall the story was, and just wanted to be out of the theater. However, those who love good closure on their drama will enjoy the last thirty minutes of the movie, especially if you are a Jordan Sparks fan. Other than that there is a little overacting, a lot depressing problems that may bring you down, and a few editing issues that need to be wrapped up.

Sparkle definitely isn't as shiny as the trailers made it, but it's not the worse movie I've seen this summer. Fans of the culture and music of the 60's will probably enjoy this movie more than anyone else, especially fans of Sparks' powerful voice. However, the pace of this movie, lack of real character development, and irregular pace makes this movie a Netflix at best so that you can turn it off if you don't like it and save yourself the time. My scores for this movie are the following: Drama: 6.0 Movie Overall: 5.0-5.5

Sparkle (2012)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Remake of the 1976 film about sisters Sparkle (Jordin Sparks), Sister (Carmen Ejogo) and Dolores (Tika Sumpter) who decide to try and make it in the music business even though their mother (Whitney Houston) objects to them doing so after her life was ruined by an attempt. The original movie was quite predictable but it was still very much worth watching because of the performances and the music. I'm really not sure why we needed a remake and especially since this one here takes place in the 1960s just like the previous ones. Either way, for the most part this is a mildly entertaining film but there's still no question that it falls short of the original. There are actually quite a few things that do work here including the performances but especially Ejogo as the troubled sister whose decisions are going to cost her and her sisters. I thought she was incredibly believable throughout the picture no matter what the story was calling for. It could be for sexiness in the music or the downfall of the drug addiction. This here was actually the first time I had seen Sparks in anything and I thought she was fine in the role, although, like the original, her character is pretty much in the background. As for Houston, she's not too bad in the film but I must admit that I think her death somewhat hurt the movie, which is strange to say because I doubt anyone would have gone to this had it not been her final film. Hearing her character talk about drug abuse, bad choices and other things just makes you think of Houston and her death. This really has a negative impact on the film that it might not have had if the actress didn't die during the post-production. Derek Luke, Mike Epps and Curtis Armstrong are all extremely good in their parts. Another negative thing is that the majority of the music is pretty forgettable with none of the songs really jumping out at you. This includes Houston's one number, which is just pretty weak. Still, SPARKLE manages to have enough in it to make it worth sitting through even if the end result isn't nearly as good as most would have hoped for.