Sparkle is a reboot of a 1976 film starring Irene Cara (Fame), about the struggles a singer goes through in her quest to become a star.  This new version takes the story and gives it a few well deserved tweaks here and there, breathing new life into the film and giving the actors something to really sink their teeth into.

It’s 1968, and Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) is a girl who, like many other girls, writes in her notebook whenever she’s got something to say.  But unlike most, her writings are amazing songs that show real talent.  But she doesn’t believe that she’s got what it takes to perform, so she asks her sister, Sister (Carmen Ejogo, Away We Go) to get up on stage instead.  Beautiful and self assured, Sister brings the house down.  A music scout named Stix (Derek Luke, Antwone Fisher) sees the performance and persuades them to form a group with their other sister Dee (Tika Sumpter, Gossip Girl), Sister & the Sisters.  Only problem is, mama Emma (Whitney Houston) is a Church Lady of the highest order; this isn’t gonna fly with her.  But the girls sneak out and become a sensation…trouble is, bright lights and fame comes with a dark side.  At least they get to rock some seriously amazing costumes (from the brilliant Oscar-nominated designer Ruth E. Carter, of Amistad, Malcolm X and Serenity).

By adding subplots that focus on the unrest in the 60s, Sparkle allows the film to become more than a simple “how I got famous” tale.  The Detroit riots, black performers trying to shake off stereotypes and become popular with everyone, the Black Power Movement (hinted at with Dee’s matter-of-fact statements and her hairstyle in the later part of the film, which she rocks, btw); by moving the film from the 50s and into the 60s, Sparkle’s family is a microcosm of the world at that time.  As with the original film, drug use is also a problem for some characters, and I couldn’t help but think of singers who never made it out of the undertow (Janis Joplin, Billie Holliday, Judy Garland…Whitney Houston.)

Sparks, Sumpter and Ejogo give first-rate performances and share an amazing familial chemistry.  In particular, Sumpter and Ejogo take the “book nerd/activist” and “the pretty sister” boilerplate characters and turn them into flesh and blood people you genuinely care about.  As Sparkle, Sparks doesn’t have the scenery-chewing goodies that Ejogo does, or the strong-willed presence of Sumpter’s Dee, but plays the “good girl with a heart of gold” to perfection.  As she’s made her own way to music stardom — and all in the glare of public scrutiny with her American Idol win — I’m sure she’ll pulled from many of her own experiences to give such a nuanced performance.

Tamela J. Mann, whom I’ve always adored as a part of Tyler Perry’s usual troupe of actors, plays Emma’s best friend Sara.  Mann doesn’t have much screen time — supporting cast members get brief nods so the music can take center stage — but her ability to convey complex feelings in a single glance has her stealing each scene she’s in.  Not a bad trick, considering she’s playing next to Ms. Houston.  As Satin, a comedian who tries to cross over from his popularity with white audiences, Mike Epps (The Hangover) oozes a bad-boy charm that is so shudderingly slimy that he’s a cautionary tale on two legs.  You just know he’s up to no good by looking at him…yet Epps has a charisma that gives Satin a dangerous beauty.

And as Emma, Whitney Houston found the role that she was born to play.  A woman who has fought her own demons, struggling to keep her children safe from the world she knows is bigger and badder than they can imagine.  Sound familiar?  Houston delivers a powerful performance. She’d pulled me so completely into her character that only at the end of the film did I remember that she was no longer with us.  It’s a bittersweet look at what might have been a new career for Houston, had things been different.  She also gives us a little taste of her fabulous pipes on the hymn “His Eye Is On The Sparrow”, a song full of meaning for the film and particularly resonant when sung by the often troubled Houston.  It’s a beautiful goodbye from a legendary performer.

As for the musical numbers, several of the songs from the 1976 original make it onto this new soundtrack.  Sparks, Ejogo and Sumpter cover “Something He Can Feel”, “Jump” and “Hooked on Your Love” admirably, but my favorite song of the film is R. Kelly’s “One Wing”, performed by Sparks at the end of the film.  It’s a show-stopper, and shows that Sparks has put American Idol far, far behind her.  As much as I enjoyed the Sparks/Houston duet “Celebrate” — played and performed at the end credits — I wish “One Wing” had been the first single released on the soundtrack album.  Ah well, potato/po-tah-to.