there's a lot of stuff that is quite dark and the film acknowledges it. what it doesn't really know then is what to do with it. the musical setpieces are fantastic — i mean really fantastic — and it goes from the 1950s in detroit up to 1972, and the recording of her record—breaking gospel album, and actually because that's a very glorious place to finish. people will recently have seen amazing grace, the documentary about her doing that, which was delayed for so long. so i think it's worth seeing it forjennifer hudson's performance because she's terrific. i just wanted the film to be more exceptional, and an awful lot of the rock biopics have got the same beats, the same story points. a lot of this seems familiar. but she carries it shoulder high, and when she's on stage and doing it, she's really great. and it's notjust the voice, it's the gestures, it's the way she holds her head back, it's the way she half—closes her eyes. she's got the physical performance absolutely downpat, so that's great. the film itself however, not as good as her performance. yes, a mixed bag, jennifer hudson