Get On Up

Even before we have taken our seats in the theater, the new bio-picture on the life of James Brown, Get On Up, already gives us a slight pause to worry.  It's not so much the talent involved, it's the rating.  Who in their right mind thought a PG-13 movie about the life of James Brown was a good idea?  I'm no expert on the man, but even I was surprised that the studio would try to censor his story so much, just so it could hopefully somehow attract a teen audience.  And wouldn't an R-rating be more fitting, not just in terms of content, but also the audience, since obviously adults would be the ones more likely to go to a movie about James Brown?

The rating promises that we will be watching a movie that cherry picks amongst the highlights of the man's life, and the film itself does not disappoint.  Director Tate Taylor (The Help) has given us a handsome physical production, and a phenomenal lead performance by Chadwick Boseman, whose recreation of James' speaking voice, look and mannerisms is downright eerie at times in its exactness.  And yet, what a jumbled mess the screenplay is.  Not only does it jump from each major point in Brown's life and career, but it also frequently goes backwards, sideways, and skips ahead to a completely different point and time with little rhyme or reason.  The opening half hour is when this aspect is at its worse, as it starts us off in 1988 (with Brown in a drug-fueled haze about to be on the run from the law), then warps us back to Vietnam, then the 1930s for a look into Brown's childhood, and then the 1960s, when Brown's career is already in full swing and he's performing on a TV Christmas special. 

There are moments when the narrative jumps around to different points in time so randomly, I started to wonder if the film was even being shown in the right order.  Fortunately, after about a half hour or so of this, the movie settles down, and starts to follow a more standard narrative.  It's here that Get On Up stops being random, and follows the tried and true musical bio plotline of a man starting out with nothing, being discovered, rising to tremendous fame and fortune, and then almost throwing it away with bad decisions, usually revolved around drugs or alcohol.  At the very least, despite the tamer rating, the movie is not afraid to touch upon some of the worst aspects of Brown's character.  We get a brief glimpse of him abusing his wife in one scene, his sporadic temper, and also how poorly he treated his bandmates.  This may be a somewhat sanitized look at the man's life, but it is not a total whitewash at the very least.

Despite a nearly two and a half hour run time, we never feel as close to James Brown as we should.  Part of this is due to the fragmented storytelling style, and part of this is due to the fact that the screenplay by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth never seems to have a real handle on the guy.  It keeps on going back and forth on whether it thinks we should admire him, or be shocked by his behavior.  There's no gradual build from one extreme to the next.  I wasn't sure what to think of James Brown when the movie was over.  Yes, he was extremely talented, and yes, he had many personal demons.  The movie acknowledges both sides, but that's really all it does.  James Brown was a complex man, and it's too bad the movie isn't quite up to the challenge of really taking a close look at its subject.

Like I said, this is certainly a well made movie in a technical sense, and I really have no complaints about any of the performances.  There are plenty of smaller, personal moments that hint at a better, more intimate film.  One of the stand out scenes is when James Brown's mother (the always reliable Viola Davis) visits him after a show.  It's the first time he has seen her in years, since she left home, leaving him with an abusive father.  The last time he saw her before this meeting, she acted as if she didn't even recognize him.  Their quiet conversation and confrontation is heartbreaking, and holds some of the best acting within the film.  There is passion within the performances, and certain scenes within the film reflect that.  But then there are other scenes that go for broke so hard, it makes Brown seem less human, and more live a live action cartoon or a comedic caricature on Saturday Night Live.

Get On Up for sure has its moments, but it is a frustratingly uneven film.  It also has a hard time getting out of the shadow of other similar films about music personalities, like Ray or Walk the Line.  It can't escape the memory of those films, and it doesn't do enough to stand out on its own.  The performance by Chadwick Boseman is just about flawless.  The movie itself is not.

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