Review of Sweet Charity (1969) by Calum B — 08 Jan 2012

'Sweet Charity' is a musical about a woman named Charity Hope Valentine. She is a taxi dancer who earns little money and has had her heart stomped on by several men, but still finds herself being optimistic about love. After spending the night with a pompous movie star, she decides that she wants to get out of her dead end job and make something of herself.

This has got to be one of the most confusing movies I've seen because on one hand, there were many parts that didn't work, but on the other hand, I still enjoyed it and there were many things about it that I did like. First of all, the acting was great, even from some of the minor roles like Charity's fellow dancers. The real heart of the film is Shirley MacLaine in her stand out performance as Charity. She fully commits to the role and is so much fun to watch because her character is so interesting. I also really liked John McMartin as Oscar, who I'm surprised to hear was also in the original Broadway production. His character was really interesting and was way more than the typical love interest.

On that note, the whole romantic aspect in the film was really well done and surprisingly deep for a 60s musical. It's really hard to talk about it without revealing the ending, but all I can say is that I didn't expect it from this kind of movie. While I was watching it and I was about half way, I was thinking to myself, 'How did this musical run for so long? There's nothing special about it.' Well, I stuck with it and the second half was definitely worth it.

Apart from the acting and story, the songs were great and the choreography was spectacular. Then again, the movie was working off from a good source material and Bob Fosse was involved, so it's not surprising that these aspects of the film worked. I really liked most of the songs in this. 'Hey Big Spender' is a classic, but I also really liked 'There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This' and 'I Love To Cry At Weddings' was a lot of fun.

With all that said though, the film still had problems. First of all, it was unecessarily long. The movie went for over 2 hours and yet there were a number of scenes that could've been cut out. The night that Charity spends with Vittorio Vidal could've been significantly shortened and the musical also fell into the same trap that other classic musical fell into: the dance numbers went on for too long. In particular, there was one scene towards the beginning when Charity is hanging out in a club with a number of rich people, and the whole purpose of the scene is to show how different they are and how Charity wants to change her life. Well, it's already established when she walks into the club with Vittorio Vidal that she is different from them, but then they get into a dance number that just drags on and does nothing to further the story. There's another scene that was confusing when Oscar and Charity meet a group of hippies led by Sammy Davis Jr who sing a strange number that goes on for a while and once again, doesn't do anything to further the story. I didn't get that scene at all and Sammy Davis Jr's celebrity cameo seemed really distracting. It's a real shame because he's such a talented musician and he's a legend.

Apart from the length of the film and dance numbers, I also had a problem with the structure and the way some of the numbers were put together. It takes a while for major things to happen to Charity. For example, Oscar (who later becomes a really important character) is only introduced towards the middle of the film. I'm guessing that in the Broadway show, he was proably introduced towards the end of act 1, but this is a movie. Some things work on stage and some things work on film. While I did like the style of the film, it did annoy me how in some of the musical numbers, there would be photos of Charity. I also found it strange how when Oscar gets a number, we don't actually see him singing it. Instead they play the song and have footage of Charity and Oscar running together. Why did they do that? There was no point of doing that!

As a whole though, I'm not sure how I can assess the film. As I said, I had problems with the length and unecessary scenes, but I would probably watch it again for the performances and the ending. It may not be for everyone, but I still think it's worth watching for Shirley MacLaine's performance.