The Color Purple is Vibrant! A Review
I experienced a decent dose of trepidation a few weeks ago, as I purchased tickets to see the newly reimagined The Color Purple. I didn’t know whether a remake could improve upon the original film, but Executive Producer Oprah Winfrey’s enthusiasm was contagious.
She was also ubiquitous, popping up all over my news feed and stream of DVR’d talk shows that I try to get to on the weekends. No one can say that the 69 year old O has lost any of her steam along with the weight she’s dropped! The Queen Of All Media really wants us to support this film!
Surprisingly, tickets to several shows had already sold out when I purchased mine, for the first showing on opening day, Christmas. That 9:15am time slot would have been hard for a family with small kids, I surmised. Santa, sometimes, takes precedent, especially over The Color Purple’s Celie, a black girl who managed more than her fair share of trauma and spends a lot of her life fending off heartache and searching for herself.
That’s one of the reasons I so haltingly bought my tickets. If I took the word “girl” out of that last sentence, I could apply it to me. I spent more years than I care to count, in and out of therapy and prayer, learning to manage the results of the trauma in my own early life. So I wondered whether I really wanted to spend one of my favorite days of the year, Christmas, crying, as I did when I first watched the 1985 original.
But again, I do most things that Oprah asks me to do. And ONLY Winfrey could get me out of my Christmas Crocs and into a pair of purple ones at 9:15am on Christmas morning!
…but she couldn’t get me out of my PJs! Photo courtesy of Coleman Communications / Michael P Coleman
It was a good decision. A great one, in fact. The Color Purple is luminous. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s a roadmap for recovery, healing, and in this version, redemption. I haven’t seen a better movie this year. I haven’t seen a better movie this century! And I’ve not seen a better musical, one that as successfully highlights a stunningly brilliant black cast, since The Wiz.
If you’ve not heard, both Fantasia Barrino, who plays Celie, and Danielle Brooks, who plays Sophia, have garnered very well deserved Golden Globe nominations for their performances in the film. Taraji P. Henson deserved one, too, for her knockout performance as Shug Avery. Who knew Cookie Lyon could sing? Henson’s Shug lit up the screen and, in a largely supporting role, almost stole the show from Barrino and Brooks.
This version of The Color Purple features a handful of blink-and-you’ll-miss them cameos, one of which elicited cheers from the audience when the legend showed up on screen.
I predict that not only will Barrino, Brooks, and Henson receive Academy Award nominations, but that Barrino will be only the second black woman to be given the Best Actress Oscar later this year. Celie may make a hell of a pair of pants, but Barrino needs to get to work getting her dress made. She’s got a speech to give at the Oscars this year!
But this Color Purple’s stand out performances aren’t all about the ladies. Colman Domingo’s turn as Mister is exceptional. And unlike the version of the character that Danny Glover so brilliantly played in the original film, this Mister gives us a little insight into how he became Mister!
Thank you, Alice Walker. And thanks to Winfrey and the entire cast, for giving me a version of The Color Purple that made me laugh and cry, and walk out of the theatre smiling and singing. Thank God for Apple Music! Where’s that soundtrack? “Hell, No” and “I’m Here” are new standards. The latter, performed by Barrino just after Celie finally figured it all out, had me crying my eyes out. ‘Tasia did the damned thing!
See The Color Purple. Then, call somebody you haven’t called in awhile, or extend yourself to someone who might not deserve it. The extension’s not for them, after all: it’s for you.
The Color Purple is in theaters everywhere.
Connect with freelance content creator Michael P Coleman at MichaelPColeman.com.
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