The latest trend that appears to be coming out of Hollywood is a worrying one; that of remaking non musical films as musicals.

It’s not new, as it’s been happening for years, with the likes of 1940’s The Philadelphia Story followed by its musical version High Society, 1954’s A star is Born followed the 1954 version and the recent 2018 version, as well as the 1960 original of The Little Shop of Horrors followed by the classic 1986 version.

It’s only a matter of time before Schindler’s List gets a musical make-over, now that’s one that everyone wants to see.

In the meantime we had the recent Mean Girls, which has been swiftly followed by this musical version of the 1985’s The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg, that was infamously nominated in 11 categories without a single win.

And although both Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey are involved in this project, this version is a very different shade of purple.

1909 on the coast of Georgia, teenage sisters Celia and Nettie Harris live with their abusive father.

It’s not long before Celia is married off to local farmer Albert, AKA Mister (Colman Domingo), where she lives pretty much as a slave. Now grown up, Celie (Fantasia Barrino), who has no support left since her sister left, has to put up with her tyrant husband and look for light where she can find it.

This version is an example of a new breed of musical that could be described as a semi-musical; it’s where the songs, and routines that accompany them, are strangely truncated, often feeling like they’re over before they begin. There are no expansive numbers, which build and develop into something spectacular. It’s almost musicals for the TikTok generation that can’t handle any content over 30 seconds in length.

This ultimately results in musical numbers that are almost instantly forgettable, which is disappointing, you know, for a musical. A further indication that the musical numbers here aren’t instant classics is the fact that none of them managed to even get nominated for this year’s Oscars for Best Song. To add insult to injury is that even Scorsese’s non musical Killers of the Flower Moon did.

The direction is a little flat in places too, with the fairly novice Blitz Bazawule, with this being only his third film and first major studio feature, showing his inexperience throughout.

There is some real warmth in the performances, especially from Barrino who’s the true star of the film, carrying a majority of it, but overall the only colour it’s really reminiscent of is a dour beige, with a remake that really wasn’t worth a song and dance about.