Review: Jennifer Hudson leads a star-studded cast in 'Respect,' a new biopic about Aretha Franklin
Watch a clip from the movie ‘Respect,’ starring Jennifer Hudson. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The good news about the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” is that its star, Jennifer Hudson—whose voice is usually the musical version of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team —reins it in as the Queen of Soul while still giving a great singer her due. Sometimes, Ms. Hudson delivers what are near-verbatim performances of Franklin’s bigger hits, which not only shows enormous respect but, in Ms.
Musically, the movie is solid: The scenes with the Muscle Shoals studio musicians with whom Aretha creates her first real hit—after the ego-driven misguidance of her preacher father, C.L. , and her first husband, Ted , and the well-intentioned efforts by Columbia Records’ John Hammond to market her as a jazz singer—are a magical portrayal of artistic creation and collaboration. The performances, whether they’re in church or at Madison Square Garden, are bliss. But the movie’s still a mess.
The rap on old Hollywood biographies was that the films disregarded fact for crowd-pleasing fiction. Cole Porter was not Cary Grant ; the portrayal of Billie Holiday’s life in “Lady Sings the Blues” was a “fraud,” as one critic put it, despite the performance by Diana Ross. But the intent was always to make an entertaining movie, realities be damned.
If the producers wanted a definitive “Respect” they might have looked elsewhere than Liesl Tommy, a stage and TV director making her big-screen debut, or screenwriter Tracey Scott Wilson . Together, they shoehorn the Franklin bio into a number of standard-issue formats—the coming of age of a great artist; her rise and fall and rise; her self-affirmation and liberation. It’s like a sports movie with soul music.
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