Review: Preacher's Kid (2010)

[Michael Dequina]

_Preacher's_Kid_ (PG-13) *** (out of ****)

         With a title like _Preacher's_Kid_, it's 
not entirely unfair to walk into the film 
expecting a "standard" faith-centered/gospel 
play-style drama.  A plot summary makes 
expectations fall further in that line: sheltered 
20-something choir girl Angie King (LeToya 
Luckett) leaves the home of her strict bishop 
father (GregAlan Williams) to join charming R&B 
star Devlin Mitchell (Durrell "Tank" Babbs) on a 
touring gospel play company.  The story is 
another variation on the prodigal son tale, used 
many times over in entertainments both religious and secular.

         But the film's writer-director is Stan 
Foster, whose most recent screen credit was for 
the screenplay for one of the best, most 
affecting entries in the genre, 2004's Michael 
Schultz-directed, Independent Spirit 
Award-nominated adaptation of his play 
_Woman_Thou_Art_Loosed_ (based on the novel by 
Bishop T.D. Jakes), and accordingly there's a bit 
more edge and heft than just the expected 
faith-affirming messages and lessons.  Most 
striking of all Foster's self-referential, 
meta-commentary approach with the film's 
play-within-a-film conceit.  While this angle 
allows Foster to poke some good-natured fun at 
the well-worn tropes of genre, both in on-stage 
action (e.g. broad character types in both old 
age and Madea-style cross-gender drag; the 
obligatory moment of gratuitous beefcake by the 
heartthrob lead) and more inside issues (such as 
the types of stars generally cast in such 
productions and the general day-to-day working 
conditions of such touring plays), it also 
reinforces how he employs those familiar genre 
conventions far more effectively than the 
norm.  Indeed, at the core of the film is a 
well-meaning female lead caught between a Very 
Bad Guy in Devlin and a Very Good Guy (choir 
director Wynton, a bit of a thin role played by 
Sharif Atkins), but there's a fair amount of grey 
shading that makes the proceedings all the more 
believable.  While his behavior comes to 
explicitly live up to his similarly-sounding 
namesake, Devlin's effortlessly charismatic 
manner is convincingly, understandably 
alluring--and hence all the more insidious as he 
preys upon Angie's naivete and attendant 
insecurities.  Those qualities in Angie are 
nicely drawn from the start, and as such her more 
questionable decisions are understandable, coming 
from that place of honest unworldliness and a 
pure need to be accepted and belong in the "real" 
world outside of her father's orbit; accordingly, 
she is also is shown to not be beyond displaying 
some unpleasant behavior herself.  The added 
complexity is also present in the smaller parts, 
from the play's pragmatic director Ike (Clifton 
Powell), who does his part in advising caution 
but knows better than to not say or do anything 
to upset the rather delicate production in any 
way; to Angie's father, who may be wise to warn 
about the evils of the world but must also learn 
himself--not only to let go but also, in an 
effective (if somewhat underserviced, due to run 
time constraints) secondary plot, to start living life for himself a bit.

         That sense of balance and subverting 
expectations extends to the casting.  While 
veterans such as Powell, Williams, and Ella Joyce 
(as an old friend of the bishop's) reliably do 
the job in their supporting parts, carrying the 
film--as is often the case in many of its 
stage-based ilk--are two familiar figures in the 
R&B world who are relative newcomers to acting, 
Luckett and Babbs.  Luckett proves to a natural 
beyond her established vocal abilities, 
comfortably navigating the emotional demands of 
the role and holding the screen with effortless, 
relatable likability.  Any outward signs of 
Luckett's screen inexperience actually serve the 
part well, for Angie would be a bit ill at ease 
in many of the situations in which she suddenly 
finds herself and especially when confronted with 
as overwhelming a presence as Babbs's 
Devlin.  Babbs doesn't seem to be stretching much 
at all in the early stages, clearly having fun 
riffing off of his well-known loverman music 
persona, but what really makes Devlin's eventual 
manipulations and abuses all the more startling 
is just how convincing Babbs proves to be in 
depicting the dark side.  Likely to be underrated 
in a less showy but no less important part is 
Tammy Townsend, who shines both vocally and 
dramatically as Desiree, Angie's rival for 
Devlin's leading lady position both on and off 
the stage.  She, like the rest of the cast, 
benefits from Foster's generosity in his script, 
taking what in another film could be a cardboard 
adversary into a character that develops 
unexpected layers as the film progresses.

         While that sense of added dimension 
strengthens _Preacher's_Kid_ throughout, the 
ultimate reason for its success lies in something 
simpler, which is actually addressed in one 
rather observant line from the film: "Our 
audience may not be the most sophisticated, but 
they can spot a lie."  In terms of broad 
narrative and thematic strokes, the film may not 
venture too far past what is plainly obvious from 
the outset.  So it all comes down to how the 
formula is executed and how the message is 
expressed during its two hours, and Foster's film 
confirms the unique, undeniable power this genre 
can achieve on both stage and film--best 
exemplified by a scene climactic to both the 
movie and the play-within-a-movie, where Angie's 
song soars with such sincere, soul-baring passion 
that the audience, religious or otherwise, is 
uplifted beyond the screen and to a place that is genuinely transcendent.



(c)2010 Michael Dequina



Michael Dequina
mrbrown at iname.com
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Michael Dequina
A-Frame Studios
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