Forget the film adaptation of Steven Spielberg's novel, this is the adaptation of the musical presented on Broadway.
“The Color Purple” was originally an epistolary novel by Alice Walker published in 1982. The work, whose author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, was brought to the big screen by Steven Spielberg in 1985. It won 11 categories at the Oscars, is shunned by members of the Academy and is left empty-handed due to general incomprehension.
Then, in 2005, The Color Purple became a musical, performed on Broadway and throughout the United States, with Fantasia Barrino playing the role of Celie. This work is now being brought to the screen, with Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones and Oprah Winfrey co-producing this new feature film.
As in the original, we follow Celie (Fantasia Barrino), who was forcibly married to Albert Johnson (Colman Domingo) and separated from her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey, Disney's new Little Mermaid). She will befriend Shrug Avery (Taraji P. Henson, impressive), a famous singer and lover of her husband, as well as Sofia (Danielle Brooks, seen in Orange is the New Black), married to Harpo (Corey Hawkins). one of Johnson's sons.
Playwright Marcus Gardley's script sometimes deviates from the novel and the Broadway production, but the musical's key pieces are adopted and rearranged in brilliant and more sustained ways – particularly the excellent Hell No!, which takes on an unexpected modernity.
The production by Blitz Bazawule, best known for his collaboration with Beyoncé on Black is King, does justice to the poignant and inspiring story created by the filmmaker and his cinematographer Dan Laustsen (the second, third and fourth John Wick). the magnificent images with extraordinary luminosity and energy.
And we can only hope that the passionate re-reading of this groundbreaking work does not fail again at the Oscars.
The Color Purple hits theaters on December 25th.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5