I recently went to the theaters to see the musical remake of The Color Purple, based on the acclaimed novel by Alice Walker. It starred Fantasia Barrino, Coleman Domingo, Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson. Even though I came to the theater knowing it was a musical adaptation of The Color Purple, I was taken aback at some points. There were some humorous moments which offset the heaviness of the story and gave it a lighthearted feel at times. I noticed they took some iconic lines from the original film and inserted into this one, but the delivery was not as impactful.
Unlike other musicals that have been adapted for the big screen from Broadway, I felt The Color Purple didn't translate well to film. I felt the pacing was slightly rushed and the musical sequences were awkward especially in regards to the material's subject matter. Dealing with such heavy topics and turning it into a musical I felt was somewhat odd to me, themes such as domestic violence, poverty, and sexual assault, and breaking out into song afterwards. I also felt it lacked structure and didn't have good character development. Both the 1984 and 2023 adaptation had similar running times but the musical numbers I felt took away from the character development and the plot.
I did like that the film did delve more into the relationship between Celie and Shug, although it was rather tame in comparison to Walker's book which was more explicit. Comparing the musical adaptation to the 1984 film, I felt The 2023 film was more triumphant in the end and showed Celie's perseverance and how she overcame her struggles, with the ending song "I'm Here".
For performances, I felt Danielle Brooks gave a great performance as Sophia and Fantasia as Celie, especially during the musical numbers and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as young Celie. Personally, I did not find the acting performance as Mister to be as good as the original, even though I like Domingo's work as an actor. Also, when I was in the theater, I found the sound to be slightly low or it could've been my ears. I also thought Taraji P. Henson singing performance as Shug was pretty decent as I did not know she could sing as well.
My favorite musical numbers in the film were the opening sequence, "Push Da Button", "Hell No!", and "I'm Here", which was quite moving.
I personally hope the film not performing well at the box office does not deter Hollywood from continuing to produce black stories, particularly those that deal with black history in spite of the social media chatter calling black historical films "trauma porn", which I find to be insulting. On another note, I do think the public may be tired of remakes in general and if more black stories (i.e historical) are greenlit, they need to be fresher, more diverse ones.
Upon viewing, I'd rate this as a 6.5 out of 10.
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