Adapted from the 2005 stage musical, itself based on Alice Walker’s 1982 novel of the same name, The Color Purple tells the story of Celie, a Black girl who grows up in early 1900s Georgia, suffering rape and abuse from her father and later her husband, Mister. Walker’s novel is considered a cornerstone of American literature, deftly exploring the social evils of cyclical racism and misogyny, as well as the sexual, mental and physical servitude of African-American girls and women during the afterlife of the US slave trade.

Given the story’s content, a musical feels an odd choice to represent the story (I was personally unaware of the story’s existence as a musical prior to this film’s production), but The Color Purple is no stranger to the big screen. Walker’s novel was famously adapted by Steven Spielberg in the 1985 film, and criticised for its depiction of Black men as mostly violent abusers, in a story that softens that original book, particularly the queerness of Celie’s sexual orientation.

In spite of some questionably un-musical advertising, this latest adaptation definitely fits the mould of a movie-musical, retaining the original stage musical influences of gospel, jazz, blues and ragtime. Director Blitz Bazawule, who co-directed alongside Beyonce the 2020 musical film Black Is King, creates sequences that feel inspired by the complicated but important history of Black Hollywood musicals, such as the beautiful rendition of “What About Love?”, which visually touches on 1943’s Stormy Weather starring Lena Horne.

Unfortunately the film also sometimes rides too close to the original Amblin production, and comparisons are not helped by an early cameo of an actor from the 1985 film. The performances are excellent, including Fantasia Barrino (adult Celie), Taraji P. Henson (Shug), and in particular the Oscar-nominated Danielle Brooks (Sofia), who transforms the energy of her scenes and her big number “Hell No!”. The film makes an attempt to round out the male characters with performances from Colman Domingo (Mister) and Corey Hawkins (Harpo), and depicts a slightly more explicit relationship between Celie and Shug, but the film still feels like a retread of the 1985 adaptation, at least in its dialogue scenes.

The film also struggles to bring these scenes together with the extravagant musical numbers. Walker’s novel is epistolary, told in letters from Celie to God; some of that is retained in Speilberg’s film through voiceover narration, but here that level of intimacy is entirely removed. Big numbers play well (although the upbeat “Miss Celie’s Pants” feels tonally wrong-headed), but the solos struggle to connect even with good performances behind them. Perhaps on stage the musical numbers feel less like a break in the story, but here the theatrical transcendence of what a good musical number can achieve butts heads against the painful, knotty realism of Walker’s original story. As a result, the songs become a diversion that pause the story rather than pushing it forwards. Celie’s journey still lands a punch, but I was left wondering if a movie musical was ever the right approach as a retelling of Walker’s novel.

The Color Purple is out in cinemas now