Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1982, doesn’t seem like a natural fit to be made into a bright, sparkling movie musical. It’s a pretty bleak story, touching everything from rape and incest to poverty and racism. And it was already made into a movie once before, by Steven Spielberg, in 1985.
The Color Purple was adapted into a popular Broadway musical that debuted in 2005, although musicals haven’t done especially well lately, even great ones like Spielberg’s own West Side Story remake two years ago.
We get this weird trick of studios lying to their audiences about what the movie actually is, using euphemisms like “a bold new take” or “a new reimagining” for musical versions of what we’ve seen before like Wonka, Mean Girls and now The Color Purple. Why not just market to people who enjoy musicals?
Still, the new The Color Purple is a nearly complete triumph. Directed by the Ghanaian filmmaker and musician Blitz Bazawule, it features a gorgeous visual look, strong cast, and well-mounted musical numbers. It’s not been a strong year for musicals, but this is clearly the best one.
The Color Purple begins in relatively horrifying fashion. Early in the 20th century, Celie and Nettie are two sisters who live in a small Georgia town. Celie, it’s clear, has been raped by her father, has one child, and is expecting another. Celie’s soon separated from both her sister and the two children, and she’s eventually married off to Mister (Colman Domingo), a controlling, abusive alcoholic. (Domingo is especially menacing, in a role very different from his turn earlier this fall in Rustin.)
The narrative continues across many decades, as other characters enter the story, including Mister’s son Harpo (Corey Hawkins) and his wife Sofia (Danielle Brooks), who isn’t above throwing an occasional punch. Also in the mix is Mister’s mistress Shug (Taraji P. Henson), a brassy singer.
The role of Cecile, played in the first movie by Whoopi Goldberg, is now filled by Fantasia Barrino-Taylor, in her film debut. You may remember Fantasia, nearly two decades ago, winning the third season of American Idol, during which one of her competitors was Jennifer Hudson, who also went on to make her film debut in a Broadway adaptation—Dreamgirls—for which she won an Oscar.
I’m not saying Fantasia will do the same, but she acquits herself well in the role, which she also played on Broadway. The film establishes a romantic connection between Cecile and Shug, although I gather there have been some grumblings from some corners that the film has minimized that aspect of the story, including its omission of a song between the two of them from the stage show.
But it’s Danielle Brooks, the veteran of Orange is the New Black, who walks away with the movie as Sofia, the character played by Oprah in the 1985 version. She’s a force of nature. The musical numbers, across the board, are strong, and it’s never much of an issue that these elaborate songs are up against a story this heavy and sad. The supporting cast also goes deep, with Deon Cole—the funny co-worker from Black-ish—playing against type as the terrifying rapist. David Alan Grier very believably plays a minister. And the 87-year-old Lou Gossett, Jr., has a small but memorable role as Mister’s father. The ending delivers on the payoff that this story needs to deliver.