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Sparkle originally appeared on BBC television back in 2007, and now, on DVD in 2010, it plays about as well as one might expect any television show to play on DVD -- essentially as a pleasant, unoffensive soap opera expanded to feature length. This particular soap opera happens to populate its cast with an impressive lineup of veteran actors, but the effect on the viewer remains the same. Plodding melodrama and cornball romance play as such, even with old pros like Stockard Channing and Bob Hoskins embodying the characters.
Channing and Hoskins are not playing the leads, however, though the film might have worked better if they had. No, Sparkle is about young romance, that magical time period when first love blooms...and when you find out the true identity of your long-lost father, and your mother struggles to make it as a mediocre lounge singer, and you become entangled in an affair with a socialite 40 years your senior. Ah, those sweet coming-of-age memories burn so bright.
Shaun Evans (Being Julia, Boy A) plays Sam Sparks, a twenty-something who moves to London with dreams of entering the lavish world of high-society public relations. Sam's mother (Lesley Manville) is a fledgling lounger singer who performs low-rent gigs at sparsely populated bars. Their collective struggles make up nearly the first half of Sparkle, a tedious exercise in dramatic overkill in which it is made abundantly clear that these two people are noble and likable.
Sam quickly lands a job as an assistant to a high-profile PR mogul (Channing), a business opportunity which soon leads to a secret affair -- an affair mildly reminiscent of The Graduate, without the savage attitude and subversive wit. Such a plot development would be enough to fill an entire movie, but Sparkle has more complicated ambitions; Sam also stumbles upon the fiery Kate (Amanda Ryan), a young political activist who...is the girl Sam falls in love with. Plain and simple. There is no grander reason, no emotional challenge to Sam's character, no psychic link connecting these two souls; Sam falls for Kate simply because the screenplay requires him to.
Predictably, Sam's attempt to juggle two very different relationships along with his professional and familial obligations creates trouble at every turn, though it would be harder to predict to what degree the filmmakers attempt to depict said trouble. Not only are Sam's relationships put at risk by his decisions, but they begin to intertwine in completely unexpected (and unbelievable) ways, setting up a series of life-changing revelations we never saw coming. After all, how could we -- the film drops them on us without any logical set-up or substantial background. At this point Sparkle becomes less a movie than an exercise in crude plot twists. We are meant to care about the characters, but are forced to stand at a distance by the film's transparent attempts to jolt us into caring.
It is that onslaught of manipulation, that endless saturation of plot, that turns Sparkle into an over-cooked, over-complicated mess. The actors all do what they can; Evans and Ryan create believable chemistry, Channing exudes wisdom and maturity, and Hoskins is a welcome presence as a cheerful neighbor who harbors a hopeless crush on Sam's mom. But the film's issues run much deeper than the performances. At its core, Sparkle promises a simple story of true love's power. On its merits, the movie is a bloated tele-drama with only a few glimmering performances to save it from video shelf oblivion.
Channing and Hoskins are not playing the leads, however, though the film might have worked better if they had. No, Sparkle is about young romance, that magical time period when first love blooms...and when you find out the true identity of your long-lost father, and your mother struggles to make it as a mediocre lounge singer, and you become entangled in an affair with a socialite 40 years your senior. Ah, those sweet coming-of-age memories burn so bright.
Shaun Evans (Being Julia, Boy A) plays Sam Sparks, a twenty-something who moves to London with dreams of entering the lavish world of high-society public relations. Sam's mother (Lesley Manville) is a fledgling lounger singer who performs low-rent gigs at sparsely populated bars. Their collective struggles make up nearly the first half of Sparkle, a tedious exercise in dramatic overkill in which it is made abundantly clear that these two people are noble and likable.
Sam quickly lands a job as an assistant to a high-profile PR mogul (Channing), a business opportunity which soon leads to a secret affair -- an affair mildly reminiscent of The Graduate, without the savage attitude and subversive wit. Such a plot development would be enough to fill an entire movie, but Sparkle has more complicated ambitions; Sam also stumbles upon the fiery Kate (Amanda Ryan), a young political activist who...is the girl Sam falls in love with. Plain and simple. There is no grander reason, no emotional challenge to Sam's character, no psychic link connecting these two souls; Sam falls for Kate simply because the screenplay requires him to.
Predictably, Sam's attempt to juggle two very different relationships along with his professional and familial obligations creates trouble at every turn, though it would be harder to predict to what degree the filmmakers attempt to depict said trouble. Not only are Sam's relationships put at risk by his decisions, but they begin to intertwine in completely unexpected (and unbelievable) ways, setting up a series of life-changing revelations we never saw coming. After all, how could we -- the film drops them on us without any logical set-up or substantial background. At this point Sparkle becomes less a movie than an exercise in crude plot twists. We are meant to care about the characters, but are forced to stand at a distance by the film's transparent attempts to jolt us into caring.
It is that onslaught of manipulation, that endless saturation of plot, that turns Sparkle into an over-cooked, over-complicated mess. The actors all do what they can; Evans and Ryan create believable chemistry, Channing exudes wisdom and maturity, and Hoskins is a welcome presence as a cheerful neighbor who harbors a hopeless crush on Sam's mom. But the film's issues run much deeper than the performances. At its core, Sparkle promises a simple story of true love's power. On its merits, the movie is a bloated tele-drama with only a few glimmering performances to save it from video shelf oblivion.
