For director, writer and producer Tyler Perry’s latest, he chose someone else’s stuff as the basis. Here, it’s Ntzoke Shange’s seventies stage play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf.
Described as a “choreopoem,” the stage play dealt with seven women identified by a color (red, blue, yellow, etc.) who explained the hardships of being women of color. This film gives them all names and new characters, many of whom alluded to only in the text, to interact with on-screen.
Jo is an icy magazine editor whose assistant Crystal suffers at the hands of her boyfriend. Sisters Tangie and Nyla are at odds with each other, and the former especially with their mother Alice. Meanwhile, Nyla’s dance instructor Yasmine is raped, Juanita struggles with a wandering boyfriend and Kelly deals with her infertility.
The choreopoem aspect is not just figurative; the text is actually many poems as one. Much of the text is preserved on-screen and it’s quite noticeable when the actresses break into verse. But while that may have been a problem for a few other critics, it was a minimal distraction for me.
The cast gives some fine performances. A few highlights include Kimberly Elise as Crystal and Janet Jackson as Jo. Phylicia Rashad, as a new character named Gilda, also gives a memorable character life.
On screen, the film actually succeeds as a melodrama. One strong point, for instance, is the scene where Crystal’s boyfriend’s paranoia turns really nasty. It’s disturbing, yes, but it’s quite effectively so.
However, as a proper version of Shange’s play, I don’t know if it’s an accurate enough transfer from stage to screen. But for its fine cast, the film is quite a worthwhile one.
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