by Patrick Ball
The scene is a packed movie theater in Oakland, California on Christmas Day, 2006. The film is Dreamgirls. We’re finishing up the iconic musical number “Listen”, a solid 75-80% into the movie. Beyoncé’s Deena Jones hits the last passionate note and the audience loses it, clapping and hollering, and a woman stands up and screams “You GO, EFFIE!” That was how powerful Jennifer Hudson’s Academy Award winning performance was, that this woman was ascribing every fabulous moment in the movie to her and her character, even when another character/actress was onscreen.
Hudson has had a bumpy road as a film actress since then, but is back in a big way in Respect, the long awaited Aretha Franklin biopic...
The film is directed by acclaimed theater director Liesl Tommy (Tony nominated for 2016’s Eclipsed) in her feature debut, who has rounded out her cast with a stellar collection of stage and music industry stars.
Respect charts the life of music legend Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, who was directly involved in early pre-production before her death at 76 in 2018. It follows Aretha, affectionately called “Re” by her family, from childhood to her record successes, world fame, and eventual return to gospel music. Along the way, it hits the standard biopic road markers of early trauma, marriage woes, and addiction. The screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson plants a lot of thematic seeds early: Aretha’s lifetime struggle with domineering men, the power of faith, and her struggle to find her identity, but none are developed enough that they feel like balanced pillars to hold up the emotional core of the story. Too much time is devoted to a conventional telling of the plot points that made up the musician's life.
But, in the end this is a movie about the music, right?
And what a catalogue of music it is. Luckily, the one thematic thread that really works is how music is an integral part of Aretha's DNA. How it’s a language for her as much as expression, and how through it, she experiences life. There is a lovely scene early on with young Aretha seated at the piano with her mother Barbara (the always wonderful Audra McDonald) just catching up, talking about how they’re feeling. But to get her daughter to open up, Barbara suggests doing it through song, and as they play and sing and talk you understand that for Aretha, music IS connection. The scenes throughout of Aretha playing, singing, experimenting with, and creating the songs that would come to define a generation are nothing short of thrilling. Particularly, her first big hit “I Never Loved a Man” and of course the title track.
Hudson's performance is an interesting one. Deeply blessed with charisma and an often magnetic screen presence, she has never been particularly gifted with a compelling way with dialogue. But this performance is a patient one, largely eschewing the “big” choices she might have made previously to counter her acting weaknesses. Instead, she goes within, creating a portrait of a “Ree” that is introspective, considerate, and a surprising contrast to the larger than life stage persona we all know and love. Only in the third act, as the film dives into Aretha’s substance abuse issues at the height of her fame, does Tommy allow her to go “big” and it doesn’t work as well. Overall, it’s an impressive return to form though, easily Hudson's best performance in some time, and when she has the mic in her hand she’s transcendent.
Though the standard biopic material is nothing to write home about, the cast does well to fill out the scenes with spark and soul. As younger sister Carolyn, Hailey Kilgore is a joy. The always reliable Marc Maron is fantastic as record producer Jerry Wexler. Only Marlon Wayans, in the thankless role of abusive husband Ted White, struggles. Though he's appealingly cast against type, he isn't able to conjure up the magnetism and chemistry to make us understand why he’d be a tempting choice for her in the first place. Good work is done by Forest Whitaker as Aretha’s father C.L and Mary J. Blige in a cameo as Dinah Washington. The uber-talented Heather Headley is wasted in a semi-anonymous supporting role, though.
Kramer Morgenthau’s cinematography is the other element that lends the film a distinctive air, it’s really lovely and kinetic, the film feels alive, especially during the performance scenes. And the costume, hair, and makeup design should be easy contenders come awards season. Overall, the film could benefit from being a little looser with the narrative, a little messier. On the rare occasions it leans into something surreal or theatrical, it verges on being something truly special, but those moments are far too few. But when the movie leans into the music, into the soul stirring potential of rhythm and blues to lift us up and move us forward, the film (and Hudson) command our r-e-s-p-e-c-t. B