'Sparkle' has more emotional punch with star Whitney Houston
The tragic, premature death of modern music legend Whitney Houston earlier this year looms over the head of this summer鈥檚 : a remake of the 1976 musical melodrama (of the same name), which was meant to serve as a comeback vehicle for the starlet of such popular 鈥�90s titles as The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale. Instead, the film聽will mark Houston鈥檚 final appearance onscreen.
Sparkle sees Houston play second fiddle to American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, who portrays (not kidding) Sparkle Williams: the most musically-talented in a trio of sisters who rocket to fame during the late 鈥�60s 鈥� as 鈥淭he Motown Sound鈥� is all the rage 鈥� and subsequently fall victim to the same cycle of clashing egos, drug use, and abuse that destroyed their mother鈥檚 (Houston) own budding musical career.
Husband-wife duo Mara Brock Akil (Cougar Town) and Salim Akil (The Game) handled writing and directing duties on聽Sparkle. The film鈥檚 cast is聽rounded out by such supporting players as Carmen Ejogo (Chaos), Tika Sumpter (One Life to Live), Mike Epps (Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Extinction), Derek Luke (Hawthorne), and musician Cee-Lo Green (The Voice).
Have a look at the official trailer for Sparkle below:
Based on this early footage,聽Sparkle looks and sounds like a pretty standard (re: formulaic) musical cautionary tale about the pitfalls that come with success. While Sparkle doesn鈥檛 appear to boast quite the visual panache or flair of, say, Bill Condon鈥檚 Oscar-winning Dreamgirls adaptation, the painfully obvious parallels between Houston鈥檚 character and the singer鈥檚 tumultuous real-life experiences adds a subtextual layer of melancholy to the proceedings, which may give the film more emotional punch.
That said: if you bypass Houston鈥檚 involvement and judge primarily by the rest of the creative personnel who are聽involved with this flick (combined with the trailer footage), then聽Sparkle still seems like it should be a serviceable addition聽to the musical melodrama sub-genre (if nothing else).
Sandy Schaefer blogs at .
