Review of Idlewild (2006) by Ross L — 12 Feb 2007

A great idea which spawns a handful of fine individual moments, but still comes off as a wasted opportunity. I understand the endless delays that faced this project, as it seemed like there was a great, rollicking musical here that was simply lost in the editing room...

Part of the problem is that so much of the MUSIC seemed to have been left out. There's plenty of scenes about Percival and Rooster (who spend very little time together onscreen for "lifelong friends", and basically repeat the same two lines to each other when they are together), but the songs are sort of secondary, perfunctory. Besides the brief, loopy "Chronomentrophobia" (which is close in tone, aurally and visually, to the "Ms. Jackson" video), very little is ever revealed about these men through the music. And the proceedings suffer as a result...

And though I understand that Andre Benjamin's character is supposed to be shy and withdrawn, his prodigious charisma explodes so giddily in the musical number over the end credits that you wonder to yourself why the film decided to bury that charisma so thoroughly up to that point. Which is kind of the general rub on this one: there's some good, but the film never quite picks up on its strengths enough to be more than simply OK...