Ensemble pieces test the story-telling skills of a director more than anything else. The role was an intimidating one for Beyoncé, given that shes extremely different to character she was portraying. The film wasnt a huge box office hit, bringing in 8.9 million. Beyoncé also took on the role of executive producer. Records would work much better if it decided what story it wanted to tell, and told it effectively. Back in 2008, Beyoncé took on the role of Etta James in the film, Cadillac Records. One expects better from Spike Lee collaborator Terence Blanchard. To signal every emotional scene, the same rueful piano loop is played in the background, to an appreciable groan from the audience. In addition, it is a cruel irony that a film about some of the best music of the 20th century has serious score issues. ![]() While its humor works well, the switch to drama is made far from seamlessly.įor example, a tearful confrontation between Waters’ swife, Geneva (Gabrielle Union, Meet Dave), and Little Walter swings awkwardly between a heartfelt soliloquy explaining how Geneva’s devotion to Waters keeps her faithful and a farcical gag in which Walter’s looks of dismay at the prospect of not getting any are played for laughs. One can almost imagine Martin hastily aborting each scene to squeeze the story into a commercially viable 109-minute running time.Īpart from narrative issues, Records struggles mightily with tone. But the topic of race is merely glanced at from a distance, losing importance to the personal conflicts of the characters.ĭue to these problems, Records does not flow from scene to scene, but lurches. Similarly, Berry is banished in the third act, never to be seen again.Īll of these developments are meant to tie in to larger themes of race – specifically the plantation owner-sharecropper dynamic at play – as a white Jew makes millions off the work of black musicians. Simply put, Knowles’s mercurial and occasionally revelatory portrait of James is undermined every time she has to open her mouth and force out clichés.Īlthough meant to be an important character, Little Walter simply shows up every few scenes, gets himself in trouble and starts crying. The actors’ attempt at sexual tension and electrifying chemistry just fizzles and dies after Brody looks into Knowles’s tearful eyes for the umpteenth time and promises he will not hurt her. This romance would work much better in the larger context of the film if Knowles and Brody were given less clunky, halting dialogue and were not rushed through their interactions. The relationship between Chess and Waters is relegated to the back burner in favor of Chess’ flirtations with James. Records simply lacks a driving narrative force. ![]() Yet their development still goes astray, partly due to the film’s multiple conflicting story lines and subplots. By now accustomed to owning every film he appears in, Mos Def embodies Berry with both a wit and humanity that scenery-chewing Short could learn from.Ĭlearly, the foundation for the characters is strong. The show-stealer, however, is Mos Def as Chuck Berry. He magnanimously takes care of his performers, such as Waters and Little Walter (Columbus Short, Quarantine), to the point of being called “white Daddy.” But Chess still expects much in return, as the film later reveals. Brody effectively conveys that Chess is a man of equal parts ambition and sweetness.
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