JONATHAN LYNN

Bil’s rating (out of 5):   BB. 

USA, 2003.  Paramount Pictures, Handprint Entertainment, MTV Films.  Story by Elizabeth Hunter, Screenplay by Elizabeth Hunter, Saladin K. Patterson.  Cinematography by Affonso Beato.  Produced by David Gale, Loretha C. Jones, Benny Medina, Jeff Pollack.  Music by Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Big Jim Wright.  Production Design by Victoria Paul.  Costume Design by Mary Jane Fort, Tracey White.  Film Editing by Paul Hirsch.  

Years after he and his mother were kicked out of their small community in Georgia because she sang ‘the devil’s music’, a flailing New York executive (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is called back home for his aunt’s funeral. He finds out that she has left him sizeable stock options in her will, but he can only collect if he leads her church’s choir to victory in a statewide Gospel music competition. He accepts reluctantly, owing to his financial troubles, but soon finds himself experiencing the pleasures of music as well as the attentions of the beautiful ‘wanton’ woman (Beyoncé Knowles) at church. The lame predictability of the plot wouldn’t be so painful if the dialogue wasn’t so atrocious, but between the bad script, Gooding’s unconvincing performance and Jonathan Lynn’s vapid direction (why is this movie so long?), the whole thing amounts to one of the worst clunkers to ever have had such an incredibly solid soundtrack.