(Australia, 99 min.)
Dir. Wayne Blair, Writ. Keith Thompson and Tony Briggs
Starring: Chris O’Dowd, Deborah
Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Miranda Tapsell, Shari Sebbins.
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| Photo courtesy of eOne Films. |
Everyone in need of a pick-me-up should run out to see The Sapphires. The Sapphires is the most dazzling, effervescently feel-good movie
of the year. It’s a great crowd-pleaser full of heart and soul.
North American audiences will no doubt recognize Bridesmaids funnyman Chris O’Dowd in the
role of Dave, the unkempt drunkard who falls into the role of manager when a bona-fide
music-biz smash walks into his Australian talent show. This singing sensation
is a trio of sisters that forms a country-western group with an unpronounceable
name. The girls—Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell) and Julie
(Jessica Mauboy—lose the contest even though they mop the floor with the
competition. The judges and the frigid audience fail to warm to the girls’
mellow harmony because they don’t give a tune for what black Australians can
do.
It’s 1968 when The
Sapphires begins and Aboriginal Australians have yet to receive equal
status recognition. They’re considered “flora and fauna” as the opening title
cards suggest, so these singers face little chance of making it big Down Under.
Fortunately, Dave sees in them the makings of the next big thing, so long as
the girls change their tune.
Re-branded “The Sapphires” and joined by their cousin, Kay
(Shari Sebbins), the girls become a quartet of soul sisters akin to The
Supremes. Dave makes The Sapphires an immediate international sensation, as the
girls’ first gig is a tour performing for American troops in Vietnam.
Tensions arise in the group—don’t they always?—when Dave
bumps Gail from lead and has baby sister Jules take the reign on vocals. Comparisons
to Dreamgirls seem inevitable with
this feisty tale of divas and the inner rivalry that fuels their talent, but The Sapphires is less the All About Eve retread of Dreamgirls (great as both films are) and
more about how artists create a harmony using as the conflicts and emotions they
encounter in everyday life. To sing is to bring to life, The Sapphires seems to say as the girls turn their poverty into
melody and reach a note higher than one that they could have ever hit back
home.
Although the sisters have the vocal chops to get them
through their first audition, it’s in Vietnam that they find the proper scale
for their talents. “Soul music,” Dave explains to them, “comes from loss.”
Seeing the frustration in the American soldiers’ disillusionment over Vietnam
gives The Sapphires an audience equal for their tune. Moreover, the fight of
the Civil Rights movement in America lets the girls know that their onlookers recognize
the pain of their past.
The Sapphires
gives an admirable look at Australia’s testy history with racism as the girls,
particularly Gail, explore the wounds that give them the fire Dave wants to see
in their show. Australia’s systematic racism caused a rift between Gail and
Kay, as Kay was taken from the family when they were kids and put into an
institution to instill within her the colonial ways, much as the Canadian
government did to Aboriginals in the Residential Schools. Kay has been passing
as a white girl in Sydney ever since, and Gail looks at her cousin with
contempt and betrayal.
Australia’s history of racism has been documented well in
films that have preceded The Sapphires.
Some of the best Australian films of the past decade—Rabbit Proof Fence, Jindabyne
(my favourite), and yes, Australia—have
provided dramatic looks at the legacy and lasting ripple effects of White
Australia policy. (Canadian cinema can learn a lot from the Aussies.) The Sapphires provides one of the more entertaining looks at the emotional damage such segregation can bring, as the
split between Gail and Kay plays like a kind of wound that signing could never
heal. The backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement also
extends the girls’ plight beyond The Sapphires to create a story that’s both specific
and universal. It’s biography, but history too.
This milieu gives The
Sapphires a unique spark for a musical. It’s fun, breezy, and glittery
escapist fare as the best big screen musicals usually are, but The Sapphires has an extra oomph, much like soul music does, thanks
to the palpable sense of loss that echoes through its numerous honey-tuned
musical numbers. (The songs in The
Sapphires all appear as on-stage musical numbers, so the film avoids any of
the awkward transitions that arise when characters break into song.) The
surprising undertone that emerges from the catchy sugar-pop gloss of The Sapphires gives it a voice of its
own.
The Sapphires is a
solid production all around thanks to director Wayne Blair’s steady hand behind
the camera to screenwriters Keith Thompson and Tony Briggs for finding an
appropriate balance to the spirited melodies. Briggs, who also wrote the play
on which the film is based, is the son of one of the original Sapphires that
inspired the film. The talented cast gives the film an effective emotional
punch through both their vocal talents and their range of dramatic and comedic
skills. O’Dowd is always a scene-stealer, but he’s particularly good playing
the male lead of the film, as Dave is a charming doofus, but O’Dowd makes him
an appropriate diamond-in-the-rough to lead the girls to fame. Mailman, on the
other hand, is especially feisty as Gail. The biggest presence in The
Sapphires—she’s the Effie White of the group—Gail has a strong personality that
she’s developed like a defense mechanism as a result of growing up feeling like
she’s second rate. When Gail finally lets her guard down and opens up about the
loss she’s been unwilling to put into song, Mailman takes The Sapphires through a kind of moving cadenza before bringing it to its jubilant encore.
It’s impossible to resist the charm of The Sapphires. It’s
easily the most enjoyable film to hit theatres so far this year, but it’s also
one of the smartest and most soulful. Like the very best musicians in the
business, The Sapphires tells a great
story with affection for both its subject and its listener alike.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
The Sapphires is currently playing in Toronto at The Varsity.
It opens in Ottawa on April 26 at Empire World Exchange.
