JOYFUL NOISE
Starring Dolly Parton, Queen Latifah
Directed by Todd Graff
Do you love a honey-dripping drawl and sassy, senseless sayings? Joyful Noise! Do you like your matriarchs busty and bold, and your young'uns earnest and quick with a harmony? Can I get a Joyful Noise? Have you always hoped Glee would crank up the God and turn down the gay? Joyful Noise!Beyond the brilliant casting of country icon and geriatric human Barbie Dolly Parton opposite hip hop’s rubanesque royal, Queen Latifah, there’s not that much to praise in writer/director Todd Graff’s formulaic and familiar gospel comedy Joyful Noise.
Strict, single, working mom Vi Rose Hill (Latifah) is made choir master over privileged, plasticized grandma G.G. Sparrow (Parton). But as the town’s businesses buckle under the recession, the choir’s very existence is threatened unless they can win regionals (ugh, Glee!). They can only win if they ditch the Traditionals and modernize, much to Vi Rose’s chagrin. The friction between the two women intensifies when G.G.’s bad boy grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan), blows back into town and falls for Vi Rose’s goody-two-shoes daughter, choir star Olivia (Keke Palmer).
We know Randy’s “bad” because he breaks a flower pot busting into his grandma’s home and accidentally lets drop an excited “bitch” bomb in church after Olivia’s singing gets his giblets revved up. Vi Rose warns her daughter to keep her distance, but Randy worms his way into their home when he’s able to form a connection with her son, Walter (Dexter Darden), who has Aspererger’s. This relationship proves to be Joyful Noise’s main highlight: Jordan and Darden have a nice, natural chemistry, and their characters’ interactions have charm and heart to spare. Jordan and Palmer have a spark as the star-crossed lovers, but can’t navigate the character assassination in the final act when they’re forced apart, only to, inevitably, be reunited 20 minutes later.
The plot twists, such as they are, are buoyed by a cast that can actually sing. A few engaging gospel numbers — including the rousing finale — almost make the mash-up craze tolerable. A little more divine intervention like that and Joyful Noise might have genuinely lived up to its name. — Andrea Warner
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