In 1976, as an eight year old, my eyes were
opened as I learned definitively that girls were way different
than boys. Stage one of this awakening was Linda Carter
in 'Wonder Woman', followed quickly by stage two and the
cementing factor of this awakening was when the family packed
up the AMC Hornet, traveled to the show and I saw Irene Cara
in 'Sparkle'. An unrequited love affair would soon
begin. Where are you Irene? Point being that
the movie 'Sparkle' is kind of special to me, even though I
don't think I've seen it since we all saw it back in
1976. As it turns out this time disconnect is a good
thing for this new movie because outside of Irene Cara I can't
recall much of anything about the original so I was able to
approach this new film from almost a clean slate, and to be
honest with you, I enjoyed what I saw.
It's the late 60's in Detroit… post riots… pre MLK
assassination, and Motown and the music is strong. Right
now we're locked in on three beautiful sisters, the talented
by shy Sparkle (Jordin Sparks), the intelligent and no B.S.
taking Dolores (Tika Sumpter) and the damaged but sexy to a
fault Sister (Carmen Ejogo). Sparkle has the dream to be
a songwriter, and probably a singing star as well but she has
to get out of her own way first, Dolores is aiming for Medical
school while Sister just wants to get out of the house of her
oppressive mother Emma (the late Whitney Houston). So
just about every night Sister and Sparkle sneak out the house…
note these are grown women, not girls… while Sister gets on
stage and performs Sparkle's songs.
One of these songs is heard by Stix (Derek Luke), an aspiring
music producer and he knows talent and beauty when he sees it,
so he convinces Sparkle to write the songs, Sister to grab the
lead and sex it up and Dolores joins in to round out the trio
mainly
to look after baby sister Sparkle and
supervise her loose cannon of an older sister and the group
Sister and the Sisters are born. Just so you know mom is
unaware of all of this since these grown women are still
sneaking out the house. The fact that Emma is a really
heavy sleeper is a key component of this film.
So life goes on, Emma sleeps through everything, Sister and
the Sisters are gaining in popularity, Sparkle and Stix are
getting closer, and Sister has met the scurrilous self-hating
comedian Satin (Michael Epps) who swept her away from the
broke young man Levi (Omari Hardwick), although we're pretty
sure Levi wouldn't have introduced Sister to the magic of
illegal narcotics, nor would he be going upside her
head. Not that Emma would be aware of any of this
because she's still asleep.
FINALLY Emma wakes up from her couch and learns what her adult
daughters are doing and she's not happy, especially
considering she's been down the lonely abusive wasteland of
pop music's broken dreams, and she doesn't want her girls
making those same mistakes. On one hand she's right
because we aren't too confidant in the path that Sister is
wildly careening down, but then there's Sparkle and with her
talent, drive, level head and not to mention the love of a
good man and faith in The Lord that almost guarantees her
success. That 80 piece orchestra and full choir behind
her is gonna help too. How Stix paid for all of that is
still a mystery.
Directed by Salim Akil, working off of a script by his wife
Mara Brock Akil, which is some good nepotismic looking out if
you were to ask me, 'Sparkle' doesn't ever veer too far away
from the standards set by the numerous rags to riches musical
melodramas that we've seen before. Thus if one is
searching for something original or unique, we can't give it
up to 'Sparkle' because it does tread along some really
familiar territory and it does seem to borrow liberally from
movies that admittedly are superior to this one.
That being said, and as familiar as it may be, 'Sparkle' still
manages to be entertaining, highly so, thanks to a narrative
that doesn't over-complicate itself, high production values,
solid characterizations and some fantastic acting
performances, particularly Carmen Ejogo who pretty much owns
this movie. So dominant and overpowering Ms. Ejogo was
in this film, if they had chose to rename the movie 'Sister' I
couldn't have been too upset with them. Of course this
isn't to sell young Jordin Sparks short in any way, shape or
form as she was radiant and vulnerable as the title character,
and Tika Sumpter was tough and beautiful as the center point
anchor of the family. Mike Epps once again shows that
he's really good at being bad and while Miss Whitney's
powerful voice might've been leaving her as she neared the end
of her life, when she was on the screen you knew she was there
as she still demands your attention. She will be missed.
True enough, 'Sparkle' isn't the most original story around… I
mean it is a remake which in itself wasn't all that original…
but with a simple story, albeit one that was mighty sketchy in
parts, and some great characters… characters that were so
interesting that it was almost frustrating that we didn't get
to go in depth more to get to know them even better… not to
mention the music which was implemented very nicely and not
oppressively, 'Sparkle' still managed to be a very
entertaining crowd pleaser of a movie.
