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Sparkle (4)
What I saw in the theater the day "For Colored Girls" opened were women who had come not for love of the Broadway play on which the film was based -- poet and playwright Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf" -- but for love of Tyler Perry, the man who had given them Madea. Perry's version of Shange's play is not the best movie I've ever seen, but neither is it the worst. It is not the most moving, nor did it leave me cold.
On Friday, the day the movie For Colored Girls opened in theaters, I went to see it. I drove from the Seventh Ward in New Orleans, La., the same ward in which Tyler Perry grew up, I'm told, across Lake Pontchartrain to the Grand Theater in Slidell. I thought it would be less crowded than a theater in the metropolitan area, but I was wrong. My daughter and I arrived 20 minutes before the movie started, and we were still shoved into an overflow screening, which also was packed by the time the previews began.
Black women were everywhere, leaving wafts of perfume in their wake, dressed to the nines in silky blouses, leather pants and stilettos, toting designer handbags or sauntering to their seats in casual tops, blue jeans, and flats. A few brought babies. Even fewer brought men. Most flocked in with friends who designated one in their group to schlep back to the concession stand for food such as nachos and then another back because the first couldn't find the peppers.
I suspected many of them knew nothing of the Broadway play on which the film was based, poet and playwright Ntozake Shange's choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. The play won the Obie for distinguished production and cast in 1976 and snagged a Best Featured Actress Tony that same year for Trazana Beverley. But there I was watching For Colored Girls with the Perry faithful, fans who never miss any of his films if they can help it.
Kimberly Elise in For Colored Girls. Image courtesy LionsGate
Having seen the original play in the 1970s when everybody was talking about it and also being familiar with Perry controversies, I could easily write four pieces about this film adaptation of Shange's work. I could offer one as a critique of the movie, the next as an examination of reaction from black women who love the play and call it "our play"; a third about people who hate the movie because it has Tyler Perry's name on it, especially black men who are already complaining that the movie is "another attack" on them; and a fourth analyzing the original play, looking at how it was received in the 1970s, and why it still resonates with women, both white and of color, today. But I can only write one post for now and tell you that Perry's version of Shange's play is not the best movie I've ever seen, but neither is it the worst. It is not the most moving, nor did it leave me cold.
Some critics have said the movie has "Oscar all over it." That may be true, but I suspect the Oscar will be for one of the actresses and not the movie itself nor for the director, who also wrote the screenplay. As you will read in numerous reviews, For Colored Girls features an all-star ensemble cast of black actresses: Anika Noni Rose (Yasmine//Lady in Yellow), Kerry Washington (Kelly/Lady in Blue), Janet Jackson (Jo//Lady in Red), Kimberly Elise (Crystal/Lady in Brown), Loretta Devine (Juanita//Lady in Green), Tessa Thompson (Nyla/Lady in Purple), Thandie Newton (Tangie/Lady in Orange), Whoopi Goldberg (Alice/Lady in White), Phylicia Rashad (Gilda), Macy Gray (Rose).
Kimberly Elise and Michael Ealy in For Colored Girls. Image courtesy LionsGate
Elise's performance touched me the most, but even when I saw the play it was that character's story that haunted me -- a woman who lives with an abusive, unstable man, a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who can't find a job and who eventually drops her children from a high rise window. If you're unfamiliar with the original play, then be forewarned that Perry has not removed the violence. Indeed, he's put
