The Color Purple

It’s a punishingly bleak story, and the songs, with their antiseptic polished sheen, seem fundamentally out of tune with the unforgiving grit of the plot.

Blitz Bazawule adds conspicuous pizzazz to the musical numbers, but “Historical Racism: The Feelgood Musical” was always going to be a hard sell.

The director and screenwriter have a lot of source material to draw on and by and large pull it off due to the fine performances and the powerful song and dance numbers.

Bazawule doesn’t just give the film wallop; you can feel his care for the material.

Bazawule does well to draw out multifaceted performances from his cast, particularly Barrino and Brooks, and with them the big emotional beats all manage to land well enough.

A sanitised version of Spielberg’s film, let alone Walker’s novel. But bravura musical sequences and a top-notch cast ensure smiles and tears come the end credits.

The second film adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” (2023) is a mixed bag, featuring some tremendous showstoppers within a weak and disarrayed structure.

Fantastic performances and the occasional toe-tapping musical number aren’t enough to keep The Color Purple afloat under the weight of its own aspirations. There are great elements, buried in an edit that’s sprinting for the finish-line.

The result is a film that contains a plethora of style and visual appeal but is still held back by narrative constraints.

Alice Walker's The Color Purple has enthralled audiences since its release in 1982. The novel led to Walker receiving the 1983 Pulitzer Prize - a first for any African American woman - and has spawned two films and a Broadway musical.