Although I am forever grateful that it was not
Will Smith’s unholy offspring cast in the iconic title role, I don’t think that
Quvenzhané Wallis has the abilities needed to carry it off convincingly. For
one thing, the musical numbers mostly feel at the quality level of an amateur
production, and the chemistry in the film feels contrived from sequence to
sequence, saved only by the support of veteran actors Jamie Foxx and Rose
Byrne. But for every musical number that Foxx is able to add some charm to and
all of the likeable comedic charms of Byrne are not enough to make up for five
minutes of Cameron Diaz’s atrocious performance, both in comedic and musical
abilities.
I have to focus
on the performances, because casting was what this film became about once they
decided to make Annie African American rather than red-headed. Before its
release, this 2014 re-imagining of the classic stage musical was already given
the nickname “Blannie,” which they seem to embrace within the presentation of
the first 30-minutes of the film, however contradictory it may be. We are first
introduced to an apathetic (a.k.a. too cool for school) Annie (Wallis) as she
sits bored in a classroom, but only after poking fun at the cheerfully
optimistic red-headed classmate. This Annie is also optimistic, but that
contradiction doesn’t seem to bother filmmaker Will Gluck as he uses this
opening sequence to degrade gingers. I have one suggestion: if you are trying
to make an equal-opportunity piece of entertainment that is more politically
correct, don’t begin by tearing down another race or group of people.
But Gluck wants
to have his cake and eat it too with his Annie;
she is both cheerful and optimistic while being a street-smart realist.
Basically, this updated young orphan has wisdom beyond nearly every other
cartoonish character within the narrative. Not all of this update is terrible,
but it seems that the best parts have very little to do with what made the
material a success in the first place. The most iconic songs are buried within
an over-mixed soundtrack, so that we have redux versions of “Tomorrow.” Much of
this may come from Wallis’ limited musical abilities, though she shines with
the right material. It is odd to me that the musical highlight of the film
adaptation of the classic material was “Opportunity ,”
an original song written for this film.
Much of the poor
choices made by the filmmakers seem to come during the first half of the film,
or maybe that’s just because this is where a majority of Diaz’s performance
lies. I have never though of Diaz as much of a singer, which was readily
confirmed every time she opened her mouth to vomit a verse, but it was her
over-acting in a misguided attempt towards humor which quickly became
unbearable. Foxx and Byrne exist in a completely different film from Diaz, with
Wallis stuck in the middle of the inconsistent mess.
The Blu-ray
combo pack comes with a DVD and a Digital HD copy of the film. Exclusive to the
Blu-ray is a large collection of special features that include five sing-along
tracks and one deleted song. There are also several collections of outtakes,
both for the human actors and the nearly entirely unnecessary canine character
of Sandy
Entertainment Value:
5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 3.5/10
Historical
Significance: 2/10
Special Features: 7/10
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