I had a visiting older sister who insisted on seeing this particular film. I couldn’t talk her out of it. I had to remove all thoughts about Jamie Foxx’s racist remarks on SNL and other shows. I tried to keep my mind open, my mouth shut. Although that became difficult when Jamie’s character ‘accidentally’ spit food into a homeless mans’face, a homeless man who just so happened to be white. I let it go for the moment.
The movie was not as bad as I had expected. The girl who plays Annie is very at ease in her character, and allowed me to think for a minute what growing up as an unclaimed orphan might be like. I come from a very close family. I could think of nothing worse than having no traceable past. There was a part where this Annie would go to a restaurant every Friday, with an old handwritten note clutched in her hand from her Mother. Annie would sit on the curb and wait for her mom or dad to appear as they used to on Friday evening. They never did show up. By nightfall, the sympathetic headwaiter would bring Annie some Cannoli in a small paper box, as she sat on the curb, saying “It’s Okay, I knew they weren’t coming this week, maybe next week”.
Some parts of the movie reminded me of Westside Story, with the girls sitting around indoors, daydreaming, comparing hardships and dancing away the boredom.
I was thankful that the movie did not have the real Crack House Type Rap Music, that I dislike, the type thick with profanities, violent imagery and thundering bass . That they avoided, thank goodness! Most the songs were melodious and somewhat basic written as duets.
The movie was perhaps about 35 minutes too long. Cameron Diaz is miscast as Miss Hannigan, because even as a foul mouthed drunk, she is still charming, graceful and sexy.
They should have chosen somebody easier to accept as wicked, somebody like Glenn Close, or Melissa McCarthy, who is really good at playing the fat mean bully. You should see Melissa play the angry Basketball Coach, hysterical, and a natural clown!!
What ???
Oprah Winfrey wasn’t cast as Miss Hannigan ???
My family and I just saw it. Like you I found it to be much less obnoxious than I had expected. The hip-hop music is tolerable as it doesn’t delve into the gangsta rap and vitriol laced crap that passes for “urban music”. Unlike you, I found Cameron Diaz delightful in her role. It was a role unlike any I had ever seen her in before. Normally I find her attractive, not in this movie. I thought she pulled off alcoholic white trash nicely...though I agree that Melissa McCarthy might have been much better in the role...all in all, it was entertaining and since we paid matinee prices, worth it...