Dull remake no tribute to sassyAnnie
In the very first episode of television's wackiest courtroom series Boston Legal, a little Afro-American girl sued a Broadway show for denying her the role of Annie because the character is a red-headed Caucasian.
Civil rights campaigner the Rev. Al Sharpton pleads with the judge to "give us a black Annie today! Not tomorrow, today", as the little girl bursts into song with "Tomorrow . . . tomorrow . . . it's only a day away . . ."
It appears the likes of Will Smith, his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, her brother, Caleeb Pinkett, and Jay-Z thought the time for a black Annie was today after all, for they act as producers on this modern remake with Beasts of the Southern Wild Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis as Annie and Jamie Foxx as an updated Daddy Warbucks.
But when you think about it, if any musical is ripe for a remake, it's Annie. The original Broadway musical was set during the Depression and with the gap between the haves and have-nots seeming wider than ever, a multicultural update could soar.
Yet some bland performances, odd casting, two-hour running time and a script that's as curly as Annie's hair make this remake a rather wonky and largely disappointing song-and-dance routine.
Annie (Wallis) has never given up hope of finding her missing parents despite being stuck in foster care under the boozy harridan Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). When she's saved from a speeding truck by mobile phone tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Foxx), his advisers (Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale) turn to photo ops with Annie to boost his ratings.
Annie, being the sassy, frizzy- haired moppet she is, is soon moving into the billionaire's palatial penthouse and softening the curmudgeon's stony heart.
Seeing the intelligent free spirit so gleefully seduced by the spoils of luxury is one of the many flaws the film is happy to ignore in this over- long and largely rote retelling. Another is Diaz's wild miscasting as the haranguing Miss Hannigan. Diaz, a dynamite dancer, is never given the chance to do so and it's hard to buy her her as a grumpy old hag who must resort to foster care to make ends meet.
Foxx can carry a tune but seems dispassionate about performing it and has no arc to his supposedly frosty character. He falls for Annie immediately yet remains happy to use her as a polling booth pawn until the very end.
As for Annie herself, Wallis is serviceably cute but never clever or commanding, failing to grab her iconic character by the pigtails.
Director Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends with Benefits) struggles to make the songs really soar, with muted renditions of Tomorrow and It's the Hard Knock Life barely setting the screen alight. That many of the songs seem slightly out of synch with the actor's lips gives more than a whiff of "who cares" artifice to the entire affair.
The one truly rousing piece is I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here, where Aussie Byrne shows a surprisingly sweet voice and light feet in her duet with Wallis.
Yet there are just not enough of those cheery, whimsical, upbeat numbers, making for a slick yet somewhat dull and forgettable remake.
The final chase sequence is pure formulaic puff that does nothing to resolve Annie's missing parents subplot.
North Korea, which supposedly leaked the film online in revenge against Sony for the portrayal of Kim Jong-un in The Interview, could hardly have picked a more lacklustre target.
