The soul and life
12A
Cert ★★
WHO would play you in a movie of your life? What for most of us would be idle pub talk became a business decision for Aretha Franklin. Before her death in 2018, the Queen Of Soul anointed Oscar-winning singer Jennifer Hudson to star in this authorised biopic.
Hudson repays her with a tuneful turn that reminds us of the icon’s talents without coming close to eclipsing them.
But the script shows a little too much respect for the famously private star and, running at nearly two-and-a-half hours, this timid film takes a long time to tell us very little.
It keeps her private life at such a distance, you’ll feel like reaching for Wikipedia to fill in the gaps. We get the briefest of glimpses of the two children she had aged 12 and 15 but no details about their father or insight into how they affected her own childhood.
Instead, we get a disjointed account that moves to the very familiar beats of the music biopic.
In between many recreations of live performances, we see beatings from her abusive husband (Marlon Wayans), a bid to escape her controlling father (Forest Whitaker), a brief struggle with booze, and a rousing comeback.
The best moment comes in the obligatory scene where she is playing around with the title track, which had already been a minor hit for Otis Redding.
From the moment her backing singer sisters chip in with “Re, Re, Re, Re” (her family nickname), the song will always belong to Aretha.
That’s that mystery cleared up.
Sadly, the woman at the keyboard remains frustratingly enigmatic.
A tuneful turn that reminds us of Aretha’s talents without eclipsing them