by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Skye Dakota Turner
Intro:
… an entertaining musical experience, anchored by Jennifer Hudson’s powerhouse performance and director Liesl Tommy’s musically theatrical framing.
‘Respect’. ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman’. ‘I Say a Little Prayer’. The Blues Brothers. ‘Sisters are Doin’ it For Themselves’. Yes, Aretha Franklin was the driving force behind a lot of pop culture touchstones, and remains one of the single greatest vocalists in American history.
Jennifer Hudson as the Queen of Soul (with Skye Dakota Turner doing a capital job as her younger self) carries vocal power that could flatten the faithful and the atheist alike, creating pure frisson with every single performance she gets. And the rest of the cast aren’t half-bad either, from Forest Whitaker’s earthy delivery as Aretha’s minister father to Marc Maron as her eventual producer Jerry Wexler, right down to Marlon Wayans as her husband Ted White.
As a look at the woman behind the music, Hudson and screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson certainly have the basics down: Woman of God, a drive to make a change for women like her, and a voice with enough force behind it to make that drive apparent. However, most of what we end up learning about Aretha is surface-level. Wilson tries to frame the story around Aretha’s need to perform music for her own sake (rather than to just adhere to the whims of those around her) and her attachment to her faith, but neither end up latching on as readily as they should. This might be a side effect of Wilson and director Liesl Tommy being more familiar with theatre than cinema.
And yet, despite the prospect of minimal characterisation spread over two and a half hours, there is no major sagging point in the film itself. Hudson’s charisma and energy on-screen is a little too infectious to be a drag, and by virtue of that, cutting this down at all almost feels sinful if it means hearing and seeing less of this lioness in her element. What it lacks in thematic detail is almost-entirely overridden by how good the lead actress is at its center.
While it will likely disappoint those who want more than just the surface in its depiction of the late great Aretha Franklin, Respect shows enough of its namesake to make for an entertaining musical experience, anchored by Jennifer Hudson’s powerhouse performance and director Liesl Tommy’s musically theatrical framing.
