Movie Review: Joyful Noise (2012)

"Joyful Noise" (2012) is a comedy with a heavy heaping of music starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton.  The movie is set in a small town in Georgia hit hard by the recession but featuring a church choir that is in competition for the regional finals of the Joyful Noise choir competition.  After the death of the director, Vi Rose (Latifah) takes the reigns of the choir over the former choir director's widow G.G. (Parton).  Vi Rose wants to maintain a classic style of song and presentation, which the pastor likes but G.G., a major donor to the church, does not.  Obviously there is tension between Vi Rose and G.G. over the choir but the tension is amped up by the return of G.G.'s grandson Randy (Jeremy Jordan) to town.  Randy has more modern ideas for the choir and takes a big interest in Vi Rose's teen daughter Olivia (Keke Palmer).  Though Vi Rose opposes Randy's ideas and interest in her daughter, she does like his friendship with her son Walter (Dexter Darden) who has Asperger syndrome.  The choir is at first defeated by a rival choir from Detroit and then shut down by the pastor for finanical reasons but when the rival church is outed for hiring professional singers they are suddenly back in the competition and need to pull together to win for their town.

While I admit that this film is predictable, it is not without charm.  Latifah and Parton have an obvious chemistry and I thought Keke Palmer was a treat.  There is a lot of music throughout the film - really good gospel and more modern songs performed with a gospel feel by the choir such as Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" and Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed." The most surprising songs remixed for church have to be some included in the choir's finals performance.  I think my favorite song though was a really heatfelt rendition of "Jesus Fix Me" by Queen Latifah.  Major ideas like why does God allow some to suffer are touched on but not fully explored.

Though it's predictable, not really deep, and a bit stilted in parts, this is enjoyable if nothing else for the musical numbers and to see Latifah and Parton spar with each other verbally and physically.  I say C+ for the film but I think the soundtrack should get a B+ (in fact I'm thinking of buying it today).