Review - Sparkle

Sparkle Never Finds A Groove

Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) has songwriting talent. She enjoys writing and can sing a little too. When her sister “Sister” (Carmen Ejogo)agrees to sing her latest title they generate a bit of  buzz with Stix (Derek Luke). Stix is in town with his cousin but dreams of managing the next big girl group.

Stix gets close to Spakle and uses her to get her sisters Dolores and Sister together and take the next step. Their mother Emma (Whitney Houston) has a career that ate her up and spit her out and she forbids the girls from music. But the girls are determined and continually sneak out to get their career started.

The rise in popularity lands Sister the affections of a comedian name Satin (Mike Epps) that tends to poke fun at his own race for his personal gain. Despite Satin’s disrespect for Emma and her family, Sister is looking to make her own statement. And the money Satin earns is that statement. Drugs, alcohol and abuse follow as Sister realizes life isn’t as easy with money as she had hoped. But the fame is alluring and it clouds her judgment.

Will the girls become stars? And will Sparkle be able to break out of her shell in the background to step into the spotlight?

Sparkle is a movie that has a lot of potential, only to see it wasted.

Jordin Sparks is your singing draw and yet we don’t hear her sing at length until the last 15 minutes of the movie. Although Mike Epps is pretty good, he can’t wade through some over dramatized filming. And Whitney Houston will be sold to us as her last movie. No disrespect to her legacy, but she just doesn’t look good here (some of which is the role she has to play and some the result of a hard life).

The music works and will have you swaying in the seat, but there are moments in this film that elicit the exact opposite response the director is looking to achieve. When Sister and Stix return home after a confrontation and embark on a knock down drag out fight, we are transitioned to slow motion. This provoked some laughter in the theater I was in, not at what was occurring on screen, but the way it was portrayed.

A couple of reshot sequences could have gone a long way to fix this one. But instead of delivering the goods, Sparkle ends up as another film filled with unrealized potential, and that is a shame.

C

Sparkle

Sony Pictures

Director: Salim Akil

Cast: Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Derek Luke, Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo

Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic content involving domestic abuse and drug material, and for some violence, language and smoking.

Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes