MOVIE REVIEWS: JOYFUL NOISE

Reviews for Joyful Noise are decidedly negative. It is, writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times, “a flimsy movie musical whose parts are pasted together with chewing gum and Scotch tape.” Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times concludes. ‘In trying so awkwardly to include a little something for everyone. Joyful Noise succeeds in finding a little something to disappoint everyone.” Richard Corliss in Time magazine is admittedly of two minds about the movie, writing, “Inside every movie reviewer lurks two creatures: the critic and the fan. The critic analyzes and cauterizes, coolly judging a film’s manipulation of its audience. The fan sits there and sobs. I felt that peculiar schizophrenia watching Joyful Noise.” Rex Reed in the New York Observer piles on the complaints about the movie, but then concludes: “Grousing aside, this is a disarmingly sweet movie, enjoyable to the hilt.” And even in their most caustic reviews. most critics allow a line or two or three of praise for Queen Latifah. “Queen Latifah radiates such effortless charisma that she can elevate the lousiest film.” writes Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. But costar Dolly Parton doesn’t fare nearly so well with the critics. Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune notes that the “script makes several. inevitable references to how many plastic surgery procedures [Parton’s character] has undergone. But she didn’t get what she paid for: the top half of her face doesn’t seem to match up with the bottom half.” Lou Lumenick in the New York Post uses a different description. saying that the music legend looks “like a Madame Tussaud’s exhibit that was left out in the noonday sun. ” Then there’s Carrie Rickey’s description in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “She resembles a tube of toothpaste squeezed so vigorously that it looks as if some of her upper torso has been forced up to her lips and cheekbones.”