Dr Jacques COULARDEAU The story, the plot, the drama, or the comedy, is nothing particularly important and deep. But the music is great, this full new generation of Gospel singing that finds its reviving inspiration in hip hop, rock, and all kinds of other new developments, particularly the black musicians of the USA, urban or not, that want to take real life as their inspiration, real life of the younger generations and dedicate their vision to some religious dream and hope.That's probably what this film is best about: it really puts religion back in its place in society and that place is to procure joy and even happiness to people and not the sour ethics of an old fake widow who hides her having been abandoned by her husband behind the front cover of the Bible. This film is probably optimistic about the depth of this religious feeling among the younger generations, but it is not entirely false: these younger generations are looking for some spirituality, even in the most secular countries who, like the secular sectarian France, forbid religious discourse and culture in their schools and public institutions, including the kipa or skullcap for the Jews, the head scarf for Moslem women, and only tolerate religious pins if they are smaller than one inch. Here in this film they work a revival of a southern Baptist church choir that manages to find the real force of joy and gaiety in being together with others and share some communion with a divine dimension in this life. Not the communion of the commandments but the communion of the heart and empathy, soul and mind.The film though, as for the plot and tempo, is slightly too slow at times, too nonchalant. A slightly tighter treatment would have improved it tremendously. But the music is first and foremost.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

nicholls_les I found this film uplifting, funny and full of emotion. Beyonce looked and sounded amazing. Cuba did a good job and the whole film never lost my attention for a second. They sometimes say that they don;t make films like this anymore, but clearly this film proves that wrong. ( OK ignore that sentence it sounds stupid ) The music in this film is particularly good and all the characters fit into the story nicely. Good happy ending too. I just love this film and I don;t care if its not one that critics would rave on about. In my experience the films they rave on a bout are usually awful anyway. I am surprised that Beyonce hasn't made more films, she can really act in my humble opinion.

bob the moo As a child Darrin left his small Southern hometown as his mother was driven out of the church due to her singing "modern and sinful" music on the side. Decades later and young Darrin has lied his way into a job in New York and is doing alright until his deception is discovered on the same day as he gets news of his Aunt Sally passing. With his last few dollars he heads back home to find the community all grieving for the shared loss – albeit with the usual divisions in the church. With the will requiring Darrin to lead the church choir to success in a competition before he gets a cent from Sally's will, he finds himself staying in town.A MTV production, this film occurs in a vision of the black experience in the South of America that tends to only exist on sitcoms and in films like this. Crammed with every cliché you can imagine, the narrative sees a young man being won over by the good ol' spirit of the home community and learning lessons about himself, life and happiness despite initially looking down on their small town ways. It is tosh of course but it may appeal to the lower and middle-class black audience that it is squarely aimed at with its "mmm-hmmm" caricatures, gospel air and big musical numbers. These things might be enough to catch you up in the characters to the point where you care about them but if you can't get past the superficiality of it then you're likely just to see it all as bunk.Gooding Jr can't really help and does nothing here to convince me that he is as good as the Oscar suggests. He plays an easy character with mock humility and doesn't convince. Knowles can sing and credit to her for putting on weight for the part (although she is hardly plump is she?). She does the "small town girl" thing with charm but has nothing approaching depth or character. The support cast features uninspiring turns from Harvey and Epps while the presence of Pierce did nothing but make me long for season 4 of The Wire to get to me. McClanahan, Moore, Washington and others all fill in the basic but not mush else while music cameos abound from Mary Mary, Angie Stone, Montel Jordan, Faith Evans and others – again showing the target audience.For the majority of us though this will be fairly generic guff that won't appeal. The superficial plot and characters are too thin to be of real interest although some viewers will be won over by the music numbers, caricatures and clichés to be distracted without the depth or effort.

DeniseNY I'm not going to go into a lengthy critique. Suffice it to say, the plot 'borrows' way too much from Sister Act and Sister Act 2 (yes, both of them). With the exception of the romance between Cuba and Beyonce's characters - which by the way, has no chemistry at all) Yes, the musical numbers are nice, but the scenes where the choir is rehearsing with new members for the first time seem a little too choreographed to me. However, if you love gospel music and light, fluffy non-complicated plots, you will love this. It just didn't "sing" to me... Regardless, I love Cuba - particularly in comedies, but why oh why this one? Cuba! Show me da talent!