DVD Reviews

For Colored Girls – Blu-ray Review

By June L. Mar 7, 2011, 18:37 GMT

$Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, and Whoopi Goldberg head up an all-star cast in a vibrant world where friends and strangers dream, fear, cry, love, and laugh out loud in an attempt to find their true selves. Adapted by writer/director Tyler Perry from Ntozake Shange\'s acclaimed choreopoem, this gripping film paints an unforgettable portrait of what it means to be a woman of color in the modern world.$

Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, and Whoopi Goldberg head up an all-star cast in a vibrant world where friends and strangers dream, fear, cry, love, and laugh out loud in an attempt to find their true selves. Adapted by writer/director Tyler Perry from Ntozake Shange\'s acclaimed choreopoem, this gripping film paints an unforgettable portrait of what it means to be a woman of color in the modern world. ...more

Tyler Perry has chosen a film version of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” as his inaugural project for 34th Street Films Studio.

It is always interesting to see the finished product of a well-known play turned into a film. Plays by their nature are meant to be performed by many and diverse groups, led by directors who have their own vision of the work. These visions may vary, and while one might not agree with one director’s take over another’s, they all add in some way to the source material of the play.

Making a film is even more complicated, as it usually requires a reworking of the play into a screenplay so that it will flow for the cameras, and still maintain the power of the original. Mr. Perry has made a valiant effort to bring the play to life in the setting of current times, and by doing this is giving a whole new generation access to Ntozake Shange’s unforgettable words and characters.

It is to be hoped that those who are intrigued by the film will go on to either read or view the original play, not for comparison, but for appreciation of the strength of the work.

An amazing cast of stars bring the characters of For Colored Girls to life. Each one of the women is representative of a color and has some trial or burden to deal with.

At first it appears that the troubles are the Biblical seven deadly sins, lust, greed, envy, hate, sloth, pride and anger, but the story becomes more than a modern version of a morality play, as each woman’s personality is rounded by human strengths and weaknesses, joys and fears.

Outside violence is a factor as well, and in some of the toughest scenes to view we are shown just how horrific events can become in the women’s lives. Through everything the women have a connection to each other, either by friendships, family, or concern, whatever ties them together they become a sisterhood. Wisdom is shared, sins confessed, dream and hopes expressed, anguish and pain suffered.

Some comfort and light are given to those in agony, and with laughter and tears a type of justice achieved for those who need or deserve it, and seeds of healing sown.

Janet Jackson as Jo (red), Loretta Devine as Juanita (green), Anika Noni Rose as Yasmine (yellow), Thandie Newton as Tangie (orange), Whoopi Goldbers as Alice (white), Phylicia Rashad as Gilda (gray), Kimberly Elise as Crystal (brown), Tessa Thompson as Nyla (purple) and Kerry Washington as Kelly (blue) give compelling and heartfelt performances as these women.

For Colored Girls Blu Ray, Digital and DVD Combo provides the film on two discs, one for Blu Ray and the other a DVD copy, and with a code to obtain the digital copy online. Special Features are a nice combination of sequences to help explain the complexities of the story as well as illustrate the making of the film. These include “Span of the Rainbow” original interactive documentary; “Prism of Poems,” “Transformation: Movie Magic,” “Living Portraits,” and “Music For Colored Girls.”