REVIEW: ‘The Color Purple’ powered by cast, weakened by script

“The Color Purple” makes sense as a title, because the hardships the main character goes through will have someone feeling blue and seeing red.

Based on the stage musical, which itself was an adaptation of a 1982 novel, “Color Purple” is a film centered around the character Celie Harris-Johnson (Fantasia Barrino). As a teenager, Celine is raped by her father and gives birth to two children, who are taken from her and given to the church for adoption.

The cruelty doesn’t stop there, as he then arranges Celie to be married to an abusive farmer named Albert (Colman Domingo). During this time, she’s also separated from her sister, Nettie (Halle Bailey). Celie goes through many hardships, but finds some kindness and encouragement from other women, including Sofia (Danielle Brooks) and a singer named Shug (Taraji P. Henson).

It must be disclaimed in this review that I have not read the book or watched the 1985 adaptation by Steven Spielberg. Looking at it through a fresh set of eyes, this version of “The Color Purple” is powerful in some aspects and lacking in others.

As a period piece and as a harrowing tale of a woman’s endurance to live a life in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, “Color Purple” is fairly successful. The movie captures the reality of the time it’s set in and it successfully shows Celie’s resilience as she keeps moving forward through her numerous challenges in life.

At the same time, “Color Purple” struggles as a fully enriching cinematic experience. The film’s story unfolds in a meandering way, with transitions to new time periods and even scenes feeling off. There was also a sense of Hollywoodization at play in the script, with scenes either feeling overly sentimental or melodramatic.

The script just let the film down as it didn’t offer enough depth and nuance when it came to the characters and their development over several decades. Even the placement of the songs was questionable at times, despite much of the music being done quite well.

The dance choreography is quite good and vocally, everyone brought their A game to the songs. At times, the musical numbers did feel out-of-place or seem tonally off, but there’s not a weak one featured from start to finish, so they win a person over.

Also winning a person over is the cast. Despite not having many acting credits, because her career is in music, Fantasia Barrino is superb on screen in the lead role. The same can be said for Henson, Brooks and Domingo, who all bring a great deal of personality to their respective characters.

There’s also a strong chemistry between Barrino and Henson. The only unfortunate thing is the movie didn’t explore the romance between their respective characters with more detail. The film shows some of the affection between them, but there’s a sense the relationship could have been given more attention.

“The Color Purple” has some fantastic performances, plus its musical numbers are well-made and are moving. But while it features all of that, as well as a profound character journey, it feels lacking in many ways, with mundane writing and direction. 3 out of 5.