“The Color Purple” brings its vivid hues to the screen, launching the musical numbers and showcasing the outstanding cast. It completes the circle from book to movie to musical to movie musical. With a spiritual message that should be relevant throughout the holidays, the film adaptation of the Broadway stage performance, which spans decades, outperforms the Oscar-nominated original picture in several important ways.
Powerhouses like Steven Spielberg, who directed the original film, and Oprah Winfrey, who costarred in it, are among the producers of “The Color Purple.” In some ways, this film is similar to the film adaptation of “In the Heights,” as director Blitz Bazawule (credited with directing Beyoncé’s “Black is King” video) successfully captures the Broadway energy of the song-and-dance numbers while utilizing the wider lens that the film permits.
The drama, which takes place in Georgia starting in 1909, is set against a somber background of suffering and brutality in the case of Celie (played by Fantasia Barrino in her Broadway comeback), who is traded by her violent father for the ruthless Mister (“Rustin’s” Colman Domingo). The one person Celie genuinely loves, her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey, also brilliant in “The Little Mermaid”), is going to be separated by the transfer.
While all is going on, Mister is still in love with the singer he wishes he had married, Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson, singing her songs with abandon), who gives Celie hope and opens her eyes to new possibilities in an otherwise depressing world.
As the years go by, Mister’s son Harpo (Corey Hawkins) develops feelings for the outspoken Sofia (Danielle Brooks), who steals every scene in which she appears. This is no minor accomplishment in an industry where supporting performers have a lot of targets. Sofia, who is independent and prone to rebel against patriarchal norms, faces an immovable obstacle in the form of the overt, officially sanctioned racism that permeates their community.
The soundtrack to “The Color Purple” doesn’t exactly have a parade of hits, but it does progress the story and soften the harsh edges of Celie’s precarious circumstances, which helps to explain how a story with so much underlying brutality could get away with a PG-13 rating in this particular package.
