Fame

It's obvious that a lot of energy went into the making of Fame. The young cast is energetic, and can dance and sing quite well. Sure, a lot of their musical numbers would be more at home in an episode of American Idol, than a prestigious school for the Performing Arts, but you can tell their hearts are really into it. Did I believe some of them were actually high school students, who are supposed to be about 14 or 15 when the movie opens? Not for a minute, as some of them look well into their 20s. But I believed they had talent.

We meet them as hopeful youngsters who are trying to get into one of the best Performing Arts schools in New York. They all have big dreams, big fears, and parents who probably expect too much from them. As the opening scene cycled through the various auditions of the young future starlets, I began to notice that there were an awful lot of characters - More than any one movie would ever need. I began to worry that this was a warning I was in for a very overstuffed movie. I was right to worry. There are a lot of characters at the center of Fame, and not enough time to cover them all. Some get more attention than others, while a few pop up now and then, just to remind us they're in the movie, too. The characters that the movie does focus its attention on, unfortunately, are either not that interesting, or come across as walking cliches, so that we can predict their entire story arc before they even start Freshman year at the school.

Tell me if this cast of characters and their individual storylines doesn't sound like every backstage drama ever made. We start with shy Denise (Naturi Naughton), a girl who has practiced all her life to be a classical pianist, and is very good at what she does. But, wouldn't you know it, she has a secret desire to sing hip-hop, and her stuffy, up-tight parents just don't understand. That's why she has to hook up with two other students (Collins Pennie and Paul Iacono), who are producing an album that's caught the attention of a local record producer. Do you think her story is going to climax with her giving a rousing performance with her parents in the audience, who will disapprove at first, but eventually realise that hey, their daughter has talent outside of the piano, and will allow her to follow her dreams? I'm sure the answer will come as a complete surprise to anyone who has never watched a movie before.

Ah, but that's just one of the original and awe-inspiring plots the movie has to offer. Other stories include Jenny (Kay Penabaker), an actress who is sheltered and guarded, but begins to open up when she starts to romance fellow actor Marco (Asher Brook). Her relationship and career are put to the test when a slimy young actor (Tony Longo) offers her a role on his show, if she will have sex with him. There's a dancer named Kevin (Paul McGill), who is talented, but not quite talented enough, and has to come to grips with reality that he'll never be the professional dancer he dreams of being. And poor Joy (Anna Maria Perez da Tagle) is an actress who has to choose work over school, when she gets a job working on Sesame Street, and it begins affecting her grades at school to the point that she may flunk out. We've seen variations on all of these characters and plotlines in countless other films, and it gets to the point that Fame almost seems to be trotting these cliches before us like prize horses. It's just showing that it can use these moldy old plot elements, but doesn't want to do anything interesting with them.

That's because screenwriter Allison Burnett (Untraceable) doesn't give us enough to care about with these characters. Not only are the problems they deal with generic, but so are the characters themselves. They're talented kids, but that's it. They're not allowed to have personalities or lives outside of the school. What little we do see of their home lives seems to be built around parents who exist simply to disagree with the kids, or put them down. (One of the parents actually asks their son, "Who told you you were so special?") This is a strange school these kids are enrolled in. They're seldom in class, the teachers only pop up now and then to give them a little inspiration or tough love when needed, and most of the time they're free to roam the halls and stage elaborate impromptu musical numbers that are often well put together, but have little purpose of being in the current scene. The movie is rated PG, so the whole thing feels sanitized for the "tween" audience it's aiming for. Not only is it sanitized, but the whole thing's on autopilot. We know exactly what role a character is going to play in the story almost the second they walk on the screen.

So, what does work here? Aside from the obviously talented young cast, I also liked the few scenes where the teachers actually got screen time. Kelsey Grammar, Charles S. Dutton, Bebe Neuwirth, and Debbie Allen (from the original 1980 Fame movie and TV series) play members of the staff, and they bring a certain quiet dignity to their scenes. Too bad they're mainly treated as a cameo. (Grammar has been reduced to almost a walk-on, which leads me to believe most of his scenes were cut.) The movie's also slick and stylized, which sometimes works against it. This is a movie that should show the gritty realism these kids go through in order to experience their dreams of being on the stage or screen. Instead, most of the performance scenes have been shot like a music video. This actually prevents us from seeing the progress the kids make over the four years the movie covers. We never get a true sense of growth or accomplishment.

I'm certain Fame will have its fans, but anyone who is really trying to become part of the entertainment world will probably see this for the shallow and hollow piece of fluff it really is. It's brightly colored and energetic, but there's just no realism or heart for us to grab onto. The movie ends with the class graduating, and I really had a hard time picturing any of them going on to great things. As talented as they seemed to be, it never feels like they learned anything during their four years of school. I could relate, though. During the time I spent with the characters, I didn't learn anything about them either.

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