Even with an enviable Broadway pedigree behind it (the original production earned 11 Tony Award nominations in 2006; its revival won two in 2016, including Best Revival of a Musical), Blitz Bazawule’s “The Color Purple” musical is not the most obvious of sells. Mostly, there’s that clanging question — a musical about “The Color Purple”? — that will likely stop more than a few potential audience members in their tracks.
But if Alice Walker’s seminal Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from which the film (and the musical before it, and Steven Spielberg’s film before that) offers any sort of joy, it is of the hard-won and much-deserved variety. That’s the spirit from which Bazawule’s film appears to spring, and where it also finds its greatest success.
We open in 1909, in rural Georgia, as sisters Celie (played in her younger years, which stretch for about a quarter of the film, by Phylicia Pearl Mpasi; the rapturous Fantasia Barrino, who played the role on Broadway, will pick up later) and Nettie (“The Little Mermaid” star Halle Bailey as the younger, Ciara as the elder) delight in a hand-clapping game during their rare off-time. Bazawule folds that bonding into one hell of an opening, layering the girls’ song “Huckleberry Pie” alongside “Mysterious Ways,” which brings in the rest of the town (and sets up one of the film’s many sweeping song-and-dance sequences that hinge on the talents of a wide supporting cast).
As idyllic as this might sound, and as fast-moving as cinematographer Dan Lausten’s active camera work might make it feel, there’s plenty of pain contained in even these opening scenes. Celie and Nettie are so intensely bonded because they have no one else — Bazawule offers a few flashbacks to their beloved mother, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor — and their father Alfonso (Deon Cole) is a monster (one of many archetypes who dot the story) who has long abused Celie, and is inching closer to doing the same to Nettie. In fact, when we meet young Celie, she’s about to give birth to her second child, another product of Alfonso’s abuse, and another precious person who will be ripped away from her.
Soon enough, Celie has lost her second baby (though, thankfully, not forever), been married off to the cruel Mister (Colman Domingo, taking on a very different role than we’re used to seeing from him), and done her damnedest to hold on to Nettie. By 1917, Barrino has assumed the role, and taken up Celie’s deep pain — but also her mighty reserves of hope, joy, self-awareness, confidence, and so much more just waiting to be tapped into. While the film can occasionally suffer from wild tonal swings and muddy transitions — yes, it is hard to make a cohesive musical about the darkness at the heart of Celie’s experience; yes, Bazawule and his cast and crew try mightily to marry these two — when it soars, it’s miraculous.
And while much of its pleasure can be derived from its energetic, thoughtfully staged musical sequences, from Danielle Brooks’ show-stopping “Hell No!” and Barrino’s tear-jerking “I’m Here” to Taraji P. Henson’s riotous “Push Da Button” and the dazzlingly mounted “What About Love?” (even these four standouts are only a taste of the musical thrills that kit out the film), the real draw of “The Color Purple” are its stars. To say the film is inhabited by some of the brightest talents Hollywood has to offer barely scratches the surface. From Barrino to Henson, Domingo to Corey Hawkins as Mister’s son Harpo, “The Color Purple” is a strong contender for best-cast studio film of the year (its only possible competition is Warner Bros. sister feature, “Barbie”).
But the real standout of the film is, like Barrino, another Broadway holdover: Danielle Brooks, who played Sofia in the 2015 revival and returns in the role that she was born to play. While “The Color Purple” is unquestionably Celie’s story, it’s made richer and more rewarding by the people — mostly, fellow women — she collects throughout her life, all of them adding a new dimension and fresh perspective to her journey and how she can handle it (or maybe even make something good out of it).
Brooks’ Sofia is, initially, all confidence and bluster and big talk (so different than Celie! what a wonderful idea of what a modern woman can be!), at one point even kicking open a door to announce herself (Sofia is also marvelously funny). But, as is so often the case in the world of “The Color Purple,” tragedy comes to her, and watching such a star (both Sofia and Brooks) suffer through it is almost too much to bear. And, yet, as is the case in this story, there’s joy to be found at the end.
Still, there’s so much — almost too much — to cram into just one film, and as it zips through the years, they do begin to run together, flipping from 1930 to 1936 to 1945 to 1947 at breakneck speed (thank goodness for inter-titles to keep our place). Still, screenwriter Marcus Gardley does a fine enough job distilling the material for the screen, combining both Walker’s source material and Marsha Norman’s expansive theatrical book into one script (theater nerds likely already know that a handful of songs have been cut from this version; the stage musical typically ran about 155 minutes, while Bazawule’s film clocks in at about 140 minutes).
There’s so much to see in “The Color Purple” that this critic made the rare choice to see the film twice before reviewing it. The experience deepens, in both good and bad ways, with a second watch. The performances are better — Barrino’s subtleties are easier to track, Brooks’ absolutely star-making turn is even more dazzling and heartbreaking — but the overstuffed story sags more often and more obviously. We lose track of the people we most want to spend time with, the power of certain dynamics starts to flatline, energy diminishes.
But both times, “The Color Purple” ends on a high note, a culmination of joy and pain that is gorgeously rendered by a staggering cast who clearly poured every ounce of their selves — not just their talent, but their own joy and pain — into making something that both honors the work it is adapted from and stands alone as its own accomplishment. Much like Celie tells us late in the film, it’s beautiful and it’s here.
Grade: B
Warner Bros. will release “The Color Purple” in theaters on Monday, December 25.
