Starring Cuba Gooding Jr, Beyonce Knowles, Mike Epps, and LaTanya Richardson
Directed by Johnathan Lynn
Music and Lyrics by various
Let's celebrate Holy Week with two movies about unlikely church choirs taking part in major competitions. We'll start with the one that has the bigger-name cast. Beyonce Knowles was an up-and-coming singer who had just left her group Destiny's Child the year before. Gooding Jr had been a popular character actor and comedian in movies like Jerry Maguire (which he won an Oscar for) since the early 90's. How well do they work in this tale of a young man who returns to his Georgia hometown and takes over the church choir? Let's begin with two kids sitting on the church steps in 1980, just as the choir's number begins, and find out...
The Story: Ad executive Darrin Hill (Gooding) never planned on returning to his hometown of Monte Carlo, Georgia. He and his mother Mary Ann (Faith Evans) were run out of town by Paulina Lewis-Pritchett (Richardson), a self-righteous and obnoxious biddy who disapproved of Mary Ann singing R&B on the side. Darrin's Aunt Sally (Ann Nesby), who never stopped believing in him, left him the church choir, with the stipulation that he gets them into the Gospel Explosion contest. If he wins, he will inherit Aunt Sally's stock in the company.
Trouble is, Darrin is an unrelenting and unrepentant liar. He lied his way into the ad job, which he lost due to his lies right before a detective served him the invitation to Aunt Sally's funeral. After he learns that the once-powerful choir has been reduced to a few members, he fibs that anyone who joins will get half the prize money. It takes him longer to convince his childhood friend Lilly (Knowles), who had a child out of wedlock and is now a singer at a local bar. He convinces her to sing lead.
Paulina quits after Lilly joins, but she's not done making trouble. After she claims the deadline to audition for the Gospel Explosion has passed, Darrin convinces the audition judge and town's prison Warden to let them perform for his prisoners. They go over so well, not only do they get in, but three prisoners join the group. A frustrated Paulina reveals his past, which leads the others to turn against him. He returns to New York...but realizes when he gets his job back that it's meaningless, and he's nothing without his new friends, Lilly, and the choir that has come to mean so much to him.
The Song and Dance: Frankly, the song and dance are the only reasons to see this. Digging through the soppy plot reveals some terrific numbers, including Beyonce's nicely intimate "Fever" at the club. This was likely intentional, given MTV had a hand in making this one. Beyonce shines as the talented singer who is reluctant to return to the church after she was pushed away. Nice location shooting in the real small-town Georgia is the only other thing of interest here.
The Numbers: We open with Aunt Sally leading the choir through a literally foot-stomping "I'm Getting Ready" and "The Stone" in 1980. Mary Ann performs "Heaven Knows" in a flashback as Darrin recalls his life with his mother on the road. Real-life gospel singer Shirley Caesar really gets into a dynamic "The Church Is In Mourning" with her own choir at Aunt Sally's funeral. Lilly does even better by a sexy, intimate "Fever" at a smoky local club that is by far the best thing in the film.
The choir's first attempt at "Amazing Grace" is...less than stellar, especially due to a leaky roof. It couldn't be a greater contrast to Lilly's slinky "Everything I Do" with Bilal. The montage of locals auditioning for the choir ranges from a not-great "Amazing Grace" to two teens doing "God's Turning the World Upside Down"and someone doing a really horrible "Isn't She Lovely." He's impressed enough with the O'Jays' barbershop quartet rendition of "Loves Me Like a Rock" to convince the head barber to join. He starts them in on "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" before he realizes they need a lead singer. "Swing Low" gets a far more effective reprise at the prison after Lilly joins the choir.
The newly-hired prisoner singers show what they can do with "Down By the Riverside." T-Bone does his own rap version, "To Da River." The church really shows what they can do for their church audience with "Rain Down." The first number at the Choral Explosion is Mary Mary's "Brighter Days." The Blind Boys of Alabama really get into "I'm a Soldier In the Army of Love." The Baptist Choir's big finale is "Turn My Life Around." We end with everyone - even Paulina - back at the church with "Come Back Home."
What I Don't Like: This is cliched to the max. We've seen basically the same story on this blog in the first Sister Act film and the later Joyful Noise. Gooding Jr's perpetual liar is more annoying than cute or funny. He and Beyonce have no chemistry, making her suddenly falling for him in the second half a lot less believable. Frankly, you begin to wish his constant fibbing had gotten him into trouble long before this. The movie just goes on and on and takes what should have been a light-hearted romp much too seriously. Paulina's attempts to discredit Darrin in the second half borders on comic-book camp at times and probably could have been trimmed with no one the wiser.
The Big Finale: In the end, this is too shallow and disjointed to be recommended to anyone besides major fans of Beyonce, the other singers in the cast, or gospel and R&B.
Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming.
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