|
|
|
FEELGOODING
PREACHER MAN Cuba Gooding, Jr, as Darrin, who finds himself in charge of a gospel choir in The Fighting Temptations.
the fighting temptations
|
HAL HAYES TAPS HIS FEET TO THE MUSIC
AND PAYS TRIBUTE TO BEYONCÉ
AND CUBA, SPARRING STARS OF
THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS.
|
My friend John, with whom I went to see The Fighting Temptations, was initially sceptical, then grudgingly respectful and finally frankly appreciative. “The girl can act,” he said, after 20 minutes or so. Ten minutes later, his foot was tapping; and, by the end of the movie when the big gospel singing competition comes, it was all he could do to stop himself leaping to his feet and clapping along with the performers. “That girl,” he grinned happily, “is something else.”
Amen to that.
I should perhaps say that John sees a lot of movies - probably too many movies - but doesn’t know much about music. For him, ‘that girl’ was the one who played Foxxy Cleopatra alongside Mike Myers in Goldmember. For almost everyone else in the theatre (or, for that matter, the world), however, ‘that girl’ was Beyoncé Knowles - or just plain Beyoncé since she went solo from Destiny’s Child - and one of the world’s top-selling recording artists.
British director Jonathan Lynn on set with Gooding and
co-star Beyoncé Knowles.
|
In The Fighting Temptations, Beyoncé plays a single mother called Lilly who scrapes together a living singing in small jazz clubs. She is recruited by a smart-talking city boy called Darrin (Cuba Gooding, Jr, the film’s other star) who pretends to be a New York record producer. Darrin wants Lilly to sing in the championship gospel choir he is putting together in the small town where he lives. The small town is called Montecarlo, Georgia, and it has about as much in common with the Mediterranean tax haven as Paris, Texas, does with Paris, France. Darrin uses every trick in the book to get Lilly to join. He also falls in love with her along the way.
However, Darrin is not really a record producer: he is a recently fired advertising executive being pursued by several credit card companies and assorted creditors. And he is back in Montecarlo (where he was born) because his Aunt Sally just died, leaving him all her stock in a local electric company. There’s just one tiny little condition: Darrin has to revive the gospel choir that used to be Montecarlo’s pride and joy. Not only does he have to revive it, he has take it on to win the annual Gospel Explosion contest in Birmingham, Alabama. On the choir’s present form, this would be roughly equivalent to grooming someone who sings in the shower into becoming a Grammy-winner. But there is money at stake, so Darrin does his best. And before long, given Lilly’s winning ways, his heart is at stake too.
The Fighting Temptations rings the changes on that great American movie tradition of ‘putting on a show’, coasting to its inevitable climax with an overwhelming charm, lots of good humour and a great sense of feelgood. And there is some great music, too: the soundtrack features songs by Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, Destiny’s Child, Angie Stone, Shirley Caesar, The O’Jays and lots more.
“What we establish in the film,” says executive music producer Loretha Jones, who grew up listening to Southern church music, “is an arc that begins by introducing audiences to Shirley Caesar’s type of traditional Southern Gospel, which is rocking, organ-heavy and spiritual. Then, as the film progresses, we move forward into today’s more contemporary gospel, which combines elements of modern-day music like hip-hop and R&B.”
“This film rocks, and I mean that in every sense of the word,” says DJ Steve Harvey, who hosted It’s Showtime at the Apollo for seven years and recently inducted Little Richard into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame. Harvey plays fast-talking local DJ Miles. “I’m really excited to be involved in a project that brings the music of some of these extraordinary artists to the screen,” he adds.
|
|
