Joyful Noise serves up liberal amounts of familiar melodies, broad humor and adolescent angst. If yearning, doe-eyed musical performances are your cup of tea, you might enjoy this cloying, disjointed movie.
The film’s title refers to a national gospel choir competition that a small-town Georgia church aspires to win. After the choir’s director (Kris Kristofferson) dies, Pastor Dale (Courtney B. Vance) appoints Vi Rose (Queen Latifah) as its new leader. The pastor’s decision doesn’t sit well with G.G. (Dolly Parton), the former director’s widow and a noted benefactor of the church.
Though her resentment is short-lived, she and Vi Rose usually find something to argue about, including G.G.’s teenage grandson, Randy, who has eyes for Vi Rose’s cloistered daughter, Olivia. The young love between Randy and Olivia is given a Glee-like rendition of “Maybe I’m Amazed.” Better is Parton’s “To the Moon and Back,” a love song that is slightly undone by the sight of Kristofferson returning to croak-whisper his way through a duet dream sequence.
Though most of the songs are used to express each characters’ emotions, G.G.’s heartbreak, Vi Rose’s strained family relations and Olivia/Randy’s young love aren’t developed enough dramatically to find satisfying outlets in music.
In its quest for laughs and heart-tugging moments, Joyful Noise employs a shameless aesthetic. Vi Rose’s son has Asperger’s syndrome, a condition used to make him an easy object of pity and comic relief (he’s obsessed with songs by one-hit wonders). In another subplot played for chuckles, two of the choir members hook up, only to have one of them die (with a smile on his face, no less) after their night of passion, leaving the survivor doubtful of her desirability to other men.
The best parts of Joyful Noise are those with Parton and Latifah. Parton in particular is quite good delivering her character’s folksy aphorisms, self-deprecating lines and playing the part of a wise and deeply caring grandmother. But both performers are let down by director Todd Graff’s weak script, which can’t pull its flimsy narrative strands into something coherent and worthy of its stars’ talents.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2012.
