Respect

Jennifer Hudson was Aretha Franklin's own choice to play her in this biopic of the soul legend's rise to fame. While she sparkles in the elaborately staged musical numbers, the dramatic telling of the singer's personal and professional struggles is sadly wrought with clichés. Conflicts with Franklin's puritanical preacher father (Forest Whitaker) and her controlling husband and manager (Marlon Wayans) are recounted with a frustrating lack of depth or detail, with neither actors' portrayals rising much above by-the-book cartoon villainy. The chronicles of alcoholism, racial prejudice and abuse (both in Aretha's childhood and her marriage) should be where the film digs deep to reveal its subject's personality. But in her feature debut, theatre director Liesl Tommy fares best when bringing the music to life. Hudson's recreation of Franklin's extraordinary vocal talent is truly impressive, not least in the concert sequences and scenes where she assembles the building blocks of hits like the title song and I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You). It's just a shame that the rest of the film doesn't reach those same heady heights.