Go to “Joyful Noise” for the musical numbers by Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton and young Keke Palmer and Jeremy Jordan, not for the mediocre script. Set in Pacashau, Georgia, where the only store left on Main Street is a struggling family-run hardware store, Latifah plays Vi Rose, a choir member with a firm belief that parishioners don’t want to her your voice, they want to hear God through you. In this, Vi Rose is seriously mistaken, something that GG Sparrow (Parton), Vi’s competitor for the newly vacated job of chorus director, does not fail to remind her. Vi Rose is a true believer in Gospel music and tough-love mothering, much to the annoyance of her teenage daughter, Olivia (Palmer). GG’s taste for a mixture of pop and country with her hymns, not to mention her easy-going style of gandmothering Randy (Jordan), doubly offends Vi Rose. The film’s plot hinges on whether Vi Rose’s Gospel songs or Randy’s pop/Gospel combinations will be sung at the church choir competition.
Todd Graff, who wrote and directed the movie, includes some pretty good one-liners that Vi Rose and GG fling at each other, but the high points of the movie are the musical numbers, which shine. The very obvious theme revolves around keeping the faith through obstacle after obstacle, but the film’s ultimate feel-good nature proves infectious. Despite some overly sentimental dialogue, there’s something to be said about leaving the theater with a smile. 1/15/12
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