Joyful Noise Is a Musical Celebration

I've always liked the idea of making a joyful noise, but I have tended to think of it in terms of being an activity that involves more enthusiasm than talent. However, in the 2012 movie Joyful Noise, written and directed by Todd Graff, the parties in question can really sing up a storm.

This is a light-hearted feel-good film with splashes of comedy and romance. It involves a plucky little choir whose director (Kris Kristofferson) has just died, leaving his perky wife G. G. (Dolly Parton) and the replacement director, the commanding Vi Rose (Queen Latifah), at odds with each other over how to proceed next. With their final shot at winning the national competition looming, the pressure is on for them to really excel.

Complicating matters is the fact that Vi Rose's daughter Olivia (Keke Palmer) and G. G.'s newly arrived grandson Randy (Jeremy Jordan) are the two best singers around and are also very interested in each other. G. G. doesn't have a problem with this, but Vi Rose does, and it introduces even more tension into an already contentious choir. Can they pull it together for the big win?

This is a predictable movie with strong shades of Sister Act 2 and GLEE, but I still got a kick out of this tale of the Little Choir That Could. Not all of the humor is a home run; while I was amused by the exploits of a lonesome woman who fears she will never love again after her beau kicks the bucket, I found the insistence of one choir member on immediately repeating everything she finds funny to be quite tedious. Most of the humor comes from zesty G. G.'s zingers, particularly when they are aimed at Vi Rose.

While the basic storyline focuses on the choir's efforts to win this big competition, the movie is just as much about reconciliation between these two powerful women in the congregation and the developing relationship between their teenage relatives. It's also about Vi Rose's family regaining a sense of closeness in the wake of her husband's absence and her son Walter's (Dexter Darden) increasing struggles with Asperger's Syndrome. Darden does an especially nice job in what may be my favorite role in the movie.

Joyful Noise probably doesn't have the staying power of a Sister Act 2, but it's still an uplifting movie filled with lots of music that is not only enthusiastic but harmonious as well.