The Fighting Temptations
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C+ Film: C+
There is
a bad joke, one of a mistimed many, just before Beyonce Knowles arrives too
late to save Jonathan Lynn’s The
Fighting Temptations (2003). It has
Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) trying to explain his value as an
individual. It is one thing to play this
for laughs, but another to say something far from humorous. He actually says that he brought the war
between Rap music artists of the infamous east coast/west coast feud (for which
people have senselessly been killed) by having them watch the classic TV
mini-series Roots. After a series of bad jokes, to have one in
such bad taste that is so inappropriate, it is ground zero for how out of touch
this film is.
Of
course, it did not do well theatrically, and that has nothing to do with not
finding its audience. If it was watering
down certain aspects of its material to have broader appeal, that backfired. If this was aimed at a Gospel crowd, it is
too secular, despite the presence of Melba Moore, Shirley Caesar, and even The
O’Jays among other great vocal talents.
If it was aimed at only an African-American audience, it is remarkably
condescending and predictable. It also
wastes a great deal of talent and the opportunity to do something great with
the assembly.
Cuba is an Academy Award winner who
has already spent far too much time in far too many films repeating himself
over and over. He is a fine comic actor
with the right material, and the same can be said about his dramatic talents,
which did not click with the mixed material he worked with in the slightly more
recent Radio. I can understand him taking all the good
paying work the Oscar can bring, but it is backfiring. This plot has him inheriting a fortune if a
distant and now deceased aunt’s dreams of a gospel choir under his direction
winning a contest are realized. When
this part of the film finally kicks in, it feels like a very faded version of
Richard Linklater’s terrific School of Rock from the same year and studio.
As for
Beyonce, the camera loves her, from every Music Video alone or with Destiny’s
Child, every TV appearance, and now every feature film. Her tribute appearance as the
Blaxploitation-inspired Foxy Cleopatra, with that “crazy white boy” Austin
Powers, in the third film of that franchise boosted the humor in that film
dramatically. She is good here, but
trivialized and even humiliated in her role as the semi-bad girl who may have
lost her way. One joke, again from Cuba, has her less well lit in the
background as he makes a derogatory “ho” joke.
It was like a brief, chilling revisit to the worst moments of Gary
Marshall’s devious 1990 hit Pretty Woman,
but this is one case where Beyonce (and no other woman) needs to repeat Julia
Roberts.
Though I
was not expecting a musical, that idea seemed more and more and more and more
like a better one. That was further
reinforced by an amazing moment when The O’Jays perform a masterful a capella
cover of Paul Simon’s “Loves me Like A
Rock” as barbershop men. It proves
that the R&B legends are still at the top of their form, even as this film
is far from it. It also emphasizes the
great opportunities the film missed, furthered still by the full-length version
of the song being stuck in the supplements instead of being on the big screen
where it belonged. The Fighting Temptations had the chance and talent for greatness,
but there is little punch to this film, not even enough to find its way out of
a paper bag.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is good and solid, with nice color
balance and depth. Detail is decent, if
not always consistent. Otherwise,
Affonso Beato, A.S.C., A.B.C., delivers a solid picture that helps makes this
problematic film more tolerable. Two
languages of 2.0 Stereo pro Logic-type surround in English and French, but
neither are as good as the Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3 mix. It is good for what it is, and we never miss
a bad or crude joke, but Dolby’s compression limits really show in the lack of
warmth in the Gospel songs. This was
theatrically DTS and sadly is another victim of Paramount’s no-DTS DVD release slate. That is too bad for us. The few extras are the trailer to this and
four other paramount titles, 8 full-length versions of the songs, and 7
extended scenes.
The
hype-ad for the film is “Don’t fight the feeling!” After seeing this, I could not imagine what
they were talking about. Was it my
resentment that the film was worse than the trailers made it look or that so
much talent was wasted? There is never a
sense of joy in any frame. Any
possibility is undercut by all the problems it faced. All that is left is a shell of what could
have really been a good time.
- Nicholas Sheffo
