‘Respect’ pays tribute to iconic Franklin

Biopic a fine tribute to Franklin, loses the melody late

For roughly two-thirds of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime, “Respect” deserves plenty of it. ¶ Powered in part by the amazing pipes of onetime “American Idol” contestant and “Dreamgirls” star Jennifer Hudson, the biographical film about the late, great Aretha Franklin is engaging as it educates on the “Queen of Soul.” ¶ However, making a strong biopic is one of the tougher tasks in the filmmaking arena, and “Respect” is only the latest piece of evidence to support that statement.

Crafted by a director and a writer with backgrounds primarily in the theater — Liesl Tommy and Tracey Scott Wilson, respectively — “Respect” loses some steam in the final act, which explores a later phase in Franklin’s impressive career.

One approach to a biopic is to give it a nonlinear narrative, allowing the story to jump backward and forward in time to explore events to tie together thematically and ultimately speak to a larger truth.

Tommy and Wilson choose the safer route, telling a chronological story that begins with Aretha as a girl and ends with her later in her career, with a lot of heartbreak and struggle — but also triumph — in between. As a result, it can feel a bit of a paint-by-numbers effort.

We are introduced to a young Aretha (Skye Dakota Turner), who sings for guests at the Saturday-evening parties hosted by her Southern Baptist preacher father, the Rev C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”), in their Detroit home in 1952.

When her mother, Barbara Siggers Franklin (Audra McDonald, “The Good Fight”), visits, she implores Aretha to sing only if she wants to, never because a man wants her to — adding that her voice belongs to no man other than God.’

METRO GOLDWYN MAYER PICTURES Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin, and Forest Whitaker portrays her father, C.L. Franklin, in “Respect.”