Get on Up - 1 1/2 smiles

See “Get on Up” for Chadwick Boseman’s magnificent performance as James Brown, not for the story, which is scattershot at best. It opens in 1988 and bounces around to 1968 and then 1939. Biopics can be boring if they’re told in strict chronological order. However, director Tate Taylor seems to have thrown pieces down the stairs and then put them together as they landed. The movie hits the same old beats – the rough childhood, the fast rise, the price of fame (just out of order). The script from writers Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth doesn’t reveal much about Brown, a complicated figure whose drug abuse, spouse abuse and legal troubles were considerable. And Taylor barely touches on issues of race and hardly ever shows us Brown’s creative process. To top it off, the film is rated PG-13 … about James Brown?

What “Get on Up” does have going for it is a rousing performance from Boseman, who last year brought Jackie Robinson to life in 42. Boseman is taller and thinner than Brown, but he slips into the role so effectively that he becomes Brown. “Get on Up” has no rhythm and very little soul. 8/1/2014