Jennifer Hudson is the shining light in a film that focuses on Aretha’s talent, with her personal troubles being pushed to the backseat.
Don’t you just love a biopic about one of your famous heroes from yesteryear (we get enough of them at the end of the day), I can probably count the memorable ones on one hand, unfortunately. So, with Respect fresh to UK cinemas recently, I was excited to see the life and story of the great Aretha Franklin on the big screen, consisting of a career defining performance from Jennifer Hudson, Respect was incredibly underwhelming because it could have been so much more – biopics just don’t always hit the right note.
Director Liesl Tommy (in her directional debut may I add) clearly wanted to focus on the music and Aretha’s amazing vocal talent, which makes casting Hudson a masterstroke. She really is excellent at capturing Aretha’s aura, mastering her switch in personalities; from timid to wicked – during her addiction period – and her singing was spot on; if you closed your eyes in moments, you could almost hear Aretha herself… almost.
There was a slightly dark undertone to the film (very slight) about abuse; psychological, physical and drug abuse, but they didn’t seem to be covered in any detail, it is the key ingredient that could have given the film more depth, it would have surely made it more interesting. Maybe the decision to not focus on these issues was to accentuate the singer’s talent more, to give her some “Respect” even. Yeah, that was kind of cheesy I know.
Respect follows the rise of Aretha Franklin’s magnificent career, from young gospel singer in her father’s church choir, to her international superstardom. Aretha loved to sing as a child, however, she was exploited by her very controlling and wicked father, C.L. Franklin (Forrest Whittaker), a well-known pastor who parades Aretha around his social circle of “friends”, a very selfish man and he only gets worse. We then skip forward in time to see a now adult Aretha trying to get by as a single mother – having first given birth at the age of 12. Yes, 12. Franklin is a non-successful gospel singer who is struggling to get any hits under her father’s management, which forces her to take on Ted White (Marlon Wayans) as her manager as well as her future husband, and an abusive one at that. Franklin changes her style, her genre, and creates the best work of her career.
The recording of the great “I Ain’t Never Loved a Man” was the swing that the film needed, it was also where Aretha’s successful career began to blossom, as well as unfortunately kick starting the torrid abuse that Ted was known for inflicting on Aretha – a jealous spiteful man just like her father. As time goes by and her career has exploded all over the world, Aretha begins to turn quite wicked – following in many a footstep – as she begins to drink and indulge in drugs, which leads to an infamous fall from the stage in one memorable performance. After a revelation in which Aretha has a vision from her late mother, she returns to her gospel roots once again, reuniting with old friends and loved ones, it all leads to Aretha recording “Amazing Grace”, the album which became her most sold of all time.
There are a few things that a biopic should be judged on: how accurate the portrayal of the subject person is, how truthful it was to the original story, and if it did the story any justice at all. Hudson was of course brilliant, as were many of the supporting characters (Whittaker and Wayans in particular), but the film felt largely unremarkable for a story and character that is so spectacular, which is a shame. It’s no Walk the Line, or Ray, it doesn’t have their cutting edge to make itself more interesting, it just ambled through Franklin’s career with a lovely little sing along, instead of homing in on a particularly troubling moment, the moments that shaped this woman’s whole life. It lacked a bit of zest and needed a little more in the drama department for it to go down as an all-time great biopic.
Respect is available to watch at your local cinema and certain streaming services out of the UK.
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