The Color Purple

I really enjoyed the Broadway touring production of The Color Purple several years ago so I was excited to finally have the chance to see the movie adaptation of the musical last night.  It was my first movie of 2024 and I certainly picked a good one because I loved it!  Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi), a young Black girl living in the rural South in the early 1900s, has already had her two children by her abusive father Alfonso (Deon Cole) taken away from her when she is forced to marry an older man known only to her as Mister (Colman Domingo).  He beats her and forces her to cook, clean, and take care of his three children but, worse than that, he separates her from her beloved sister Nettie (Halle Bailey) and hides all of Nettie's letters to her.  After several years of this treatment, Celie (Fantasia Barrino) has had her spirit completely broken but Sofia (Danielle Brooks), the wife of Mister's son Harpo (Corey Hawkins), teaches her that she can stand up for herself and Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), a blues singer who was once Mister's lover, teaches her to love herself.  These relationships eventually help Celie find the strength to stand up to Mister which also helps Sofia find her voice again and helps Shug reconcile with her father.  The importance of female friendships in overcoming adversity and finding the beauty in life when it seems so bleak are incredibly powerful themes and the performances, especially by Barrino and Brooks, are amazing.  I also really enjoyed the music, particularly "Keep It Movin'" by young Celie and young Nettie, "Hell No!" by Sofia, and "I'm Here" by Celie, and I loved the staging of the musical numbers (many have called it too theatrical because the choreography seems to be happening on stage but this really worked for me).  As much as I loved this movie, the pacing sometimes suffers because it tries to incorporate elements from both the stage musical and the novel by Alice Walker which means that some of the milestones in Celie's life happen very quickly before the audience has a chance to experience the emotional impact (especially in the first act).  Even so, it still feels too long.  Aside from these pacing issues, the themes, the music, and the performances make this adaptation worth seeing and I highly recommend it.