Dec 29, 2014
It’s been a hard-knock life for the new version of the movie musical “Annie,” if you believe the mostly scathing reviews that it has received from critics across the country. Only 18 percent of critics gave it a good rating on the review site Rotten Tomatoes, and the choice quotes thrown at the movie included the Los Angeles Times’ assessment that the movie is “grim.”
But I’m happy to report that when I actually sat down to watch the movie myself on Sunday night with a female friend, amid an absolutely packed theatre in that same city of Los Angeles, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the new “Annie” is in fact a tremendous amount of fun. And if we as adults without children liked it so much, then I have to give the film a full-hearted recommendation for families with kids.
Along with the previously reviewed “Big Eyes,” which provides a highly unpredictable and entertaining plot while being almost completely inoffensive for teens and adults, these provide two good movie options for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday break. And the inspirational true-life story “Unbroken” about an American who survived a harsh WWII Japanese POW camp - which I haven’t seen yet, also is drawing praise from Christian circles, giving teen and adult filmgoers a third stellar option at theatres.
Updating the classic Broadway musical from 1977 and the 1982 hit movie that originally brought its magic to the screen, the new “Annie” cleverly resets the story in present-day Manhattan rather than the Great Depression-era 1930s. More importantly, it also recasts the movie to make both Annie and her caretaker (now known as Will Stacks rather than Daddy Warbucks) African-American, Quvanzhane Wallis (who was Oscar-nominated for her 2013 debut role in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”) and Jamie Foxx as Stacks.
In the new movie, Annie isn’t actually an orphan, but rather was abandoned as a baby by her parents outside an Italian restaurant. She’s still under the care of a Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), who now harbors a slew of young girls in her apartment as a scheming foster parent.
Annie is always sneaking away from Miss Hannigan’s apartment to try and track down her parents, and on one eventful day, she literally runs smack into Stacks, a billionaire cellphone magnate who is running for mayor of New York City. He pulls her out of the way of a speeding truck, saving her life, and his heroic deed goes viral after being caught on a cellphone camera.
Stacks is a loner who has no kids or even a wife or girlfriend to speak of, but when his campaign advisor Guy (Bobby Cannavale, in a hilariously smarmy performance) tells him being around Annie would win over voters, he reluctantly allows her to move into his stunning penthouse apartment. As Annie adjusts to her new life of privilege and Stacks adjusts to having responsibility for another person, Miss Hannigan jealously schemes to ruin It all for them.
Sure, the plot is simple, and it stays that way since the focus is on the music and a child’s sense of wonder at getting to experience life in New York on both ends of the economic spectrum. For kids, it’s sure to be pure magic on that level, but there’s fun to be had beyond the musical numbers for adults.
The movie has slyly funny updates on the omnipotence of cellphone cameras, social media and viral videos, along with a dose of satire lobbed at today’s political campaigns and how much style has replaced any sense of substance in them. From the lead duo of Foxx and Wallis on down through the supporting players (including Rose Byrne as Stacks’ right-hand woman who is tired of being overlooked as a romantic interest) such as Diaz and Cannavale on down through the other girls and the smaller characters who color the edges of Annie’s life, the casting is terrific.
That isn’t to say the movie is absolutlely perfect. Diaz has been taking some brutal critiques for her off-pitch singing, but the movie slyly acknowledges the actress’ lack of pipes by inventing a backstory for Hannigan in which she was fired as a background singer for ‘90s dance-music act C&C Music Factory. Strangely, it’s the cast’ most accomplished singer – the Grammy-winning, million-selling Foxx - - who sounds the strangest, with his voice buried in the mix of his lead-singing numbers.
Director Will Gluck co-wrote the sharp update with Aline Brosh McKenna, and the two have delivered a movie that, regardless of what other critics have to say. One attacked the movie by saying that its message seems to be “rich people are nice too.” In an era in which class warfare is played by the mainstream media and the wealthy are demonized at all turns, perhaps that explains why the critics are ganging up on this fine family film. Or maybe it’s the fact that it’s a fine family film.
Either way, surveyed audiences have rated it an A-. I’d say that’s about right, and have no doubt anyone in our audience who sees this will feel the same way.