Regarding decision-making within Hollywood production companies, it is interesting to analyze why some classic movies are remade and others are not or never will be. For the remake of "The Color Purple", the idea is that this movie will be both a drama and a musical. In terms of the number and quality of the musical numbers in this 2-hour and 21-minute film, there were too many musical numbers, and several were too long. Fortunately, the music was not overwhelming enough to diminish the excellent story and acting performances. One number at the end with Celie played by Fantasia Barrino was powerful enough to be mentioned along with Jennifer Hudson's performance in Dream Girls, released in 2006. Barrino just might be nominated for best actress Oscar this year.
The The Color Purple is from the 1982 Novel, written by Alice Walker. This emotional story is about two young sisters Celie and Nettie, in the early 1900s, who are constantly abused by their father, including the rape of Celie. Then Celie has two children from her father who are later given away. For the rest of her life, Celie never knows if her children are living or dead. Celie is forced to marry a real lowlife named Mister played by Colman Domingo. One of the hardest things to sit through in any movie is watching the constant verbal and physical abuse of a human being. Both versions of The Color Purple have extreme examples of abuse of Celie by Mister in many scenes, with this version probably even worse than the original. Mister prevents Celie from ever receiving any letters from her sister Nettie for many years adding to the cruelty of Celie's disgusting husband throughout this story. Like Whoopie Goldberg in the original movie, the Celie in this movie has her moment of revenge with Mister at a dinner, which was every bit as good as Goldberg's performance. This is why we go to the movies, to see how we would all like life to work out, with the evil people in this world getting what they deserve in the end.
Other characters in this film include Sofia, played by Danielle Brooks, who plays the role originally played by Oprah Winfrey as a overweight and very tough woman, who when hit by anyone hits back hard. Her impressive performance almost steals this entire movie. Taraji P. Henson plays Shug Avery and has several musical performances that show she can both sing and act extremely well.
I thought the highly emotional ending and reunion with Celie, her sister and her two children was extremely well done, even better than the original, making for a very satisfying ending.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a very high 87% and I agree with the critics this time around and recommend this film.
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