>>REVIEW
IDLEWILD
STARRING Andre Benjamin, Antwan A. Patton and Terrence Howard
DIRECTED BY Bryan Barber
Now playing
Check listings
Written and directed by hip hop video director Bryan Barber, it comes as no surprise that Idlewild is a great looking movie. It stars Andre Benjamin and Antwan A. Patton – better known as OutKast’s Andre 3000 and Big Boi – as Percival and Rooster, a couple of friends growing up in 1930s Atlanta. There’s a lot of action, a bit of nudity and, underneath it all, a tale of friendship and redemption.
While Idlewild dazzles with gorgeous costumes, a solid cast, dizzying dance scenes and Benjamin’s killer smile, the end result falls far short of the sum of its parts.
Benjamin’s Percival is a piano player who sneaks out of his father’s funeral parlour in order to play with a band at a speakeasy known to its frequenters as Church. Percival’s alcoholic father, played by Ben Vereen, has sealed himself and his son off from visitors since the untimely death of his wife. In spite of his father’s best efforts, however, Percival recognizes there is more to life than grief and allows himself to fall in love with young singer Angel Davenport (played by Patton’s real-life wife, Paula Patton).
Meanwhile, singer Rooster spends his time trying to keep his various dalliances and vices out of the all-seeing eyes of his wife, Zora (Malinda Williams). The speakeasy of which he is second-in-command has recently been taken over by the unsavoury Trumpy. Rooster works double-time to balance family life with the less wholesome elements of his world.
While the cast is far better than your average musician-turned-actor fare (Cicely Tyson, Patti Labelle and Macy Gray all make guest appearances), it’s Terrence Howard’s hardened mobster, Trumpy, that is the one to watch.
But all the acting in the world can’t save Idlewild. The clichéd plotline is all over the place, and becomes a two-hour exercise in self-indulgence. Making matters worse is that, while I’m all for artistic licence, OutKast’s songs are too clunky and resistible to make the inclusion of hip hop in a jazz-age film seem like a good idea. Instead, every time the music kicks in, it seems like a video was made using the same scenery as the film.
The songs take you out of the story, which makes it even tougher to keep track of what’s going on. And when the plot also includes murder, acts of charity, adultery, a serious lack of law enforcement, a hint of necrophilia, switched identity and a talking whisky flask, we really don’t need anything else muddying up the screen. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.