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The Preacher's Wife
Warm, heartfelt, and believable performances by a marvelous cast; directing that almost
always kept the story and the message ahead of Hollywood concerns; and, above all, a script
that is at once more entertaining and more filled with faith and love than the original "The
Bishop's Wife" -- all combined to make "The Preacher's Wife" not just a good movie, but a
good movie as well.
Yes, it reaches for the audience's emotions. But then, I wanted them reached for. I had them
there, waiting for the movie to touch them. And Penny Marshall has a knack, which she has
shown often before, for touching the emotions without jerking at them.
It's more than emotions, though. This movie is a plea for the healing, not just of the black
community, but of America as a whole. The movie does not hide from poverty and crime.
Indeed, that's one of the great achievements of this film, that it manages to do what all the
supposedly "realistic" films of unrelenting hate and brutality utterly fail at: It explains how, in
the midst of broken families, poverty, and intrusive crime, decent people manage to keep their
decency, and African-Americans in particular are able to endure and rise above the damage
their community has suffered.
There is no blaming in this movie, and no shirking of responsibility. Nor is anyone a "type."
Every character is an individual. So instead of being confronted with messages (though they
were there), the open-hearted audience member hears the concerns, the humor, the vibrant
voices of wonderful people, every one of whom is worth knowing. Where many movies
centered on the black community make white audience members feel hated, feared, mocked,
or simply unwelcome, this movie wasn't about racial divisions at all. It was about universal
themes that spoke as readily to the whites in the audience as the blacks -- but without ever
retreating from black culture or adapting it for the white audience.
Though the movie has stars, with one tiny exception it is not a "star-driven" movie. All the
characters are well played; all the characters have good opportunities to shine, to take their
moment on the screen and become real for us. We see a living community, which is a very
hard thing to create on the screen, especially in so short a time.
And such is Penny Marshall's mastery that she actually brought off something that I have
never seen accomplished by any other director in the history of cinema. I'm speaking of the
"cute moment with the children singing." There are two such moments in the film. Anyone
who remembers cringing at the hideous song the children sing in the otherwise beloved film
"An Affair to Remember" will know exactly what I dreaded. And I am happy to report that,
having been present at dozens and dozens of real performances by children, this is the first
time that a movie version has done it right. This movie should be shown in film schools for
this reason if for no other!
Of course, "The Preacher's Wife" will be dismissed by cineastes as cloying, sentimental,
message-driven, "unreal," or the other standard terms the ignorant-but-sophisticated always use
for stories so clear and true and accessible to the public that they can't be cool. Let such
carpers go see Tim Burton's mean-spirited, self-indulgent "Mars Attacks," which wastes more
fine actors than any movie since "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." If you ever wanted a clear
expression of the disease that has made American intellectuals generally incapable of writing,
making, watching, or understanding a beautiful movie like "The Preacher's Wife," "Mars
Attacks" is an education in itself. What a weekend, to have both such movies open at once!
Forgive that dash of negativity! When you come out of "The Preacher's Wife," you won't be
angry at anybody or about anything. And yet you will be changed. For, contrary to what
some people think, not all change comes through anger. The greatest changes can sometimes
come out of love and joy, and that's what this film offers: Transformation through happiness.
See it with people you love. Bring kleenex.
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