A Jazzman's Blues both engages and disappoints. The story about racial identities and self-identities in 1940's Georgia is a great one, but somehow the cast does not quite deliver. The film is surprisingly emotionless even though the story itself cries out with emotions. Overall the cast does not work except for Amirah Vann as Hattie Mae, the mother of Bayou who is played reasonably well by Joshua Boone, the lead protagonist with a beautiful voice who grows up from being an illiterate, supposedly slow-witted teen to become a gifted jazz singer whose written love letters suggest beautiful sentiment. Hattie Mae works as a meagerly paid laundress and occasional midwife/healer by day, then as an amazing blues singer by night in her own juke point. Where the film fails is with casting Solea Pfeiffer as LeAnne, Bayou's teen love interest who moves away with her mother to Boston, where both decide to pass for white. LeAnne marries a white from a prominent small town Georgia family and returns to his hometown with her mother where both continue passing for white. Having grown up partly in a segregated rural county I found it impossible that these two could ever pass for white. Tyler Perry knows this and insults both history and viewer intelligence. The two main white characters who play the town sheriff and the mayor (LeAnne's husband) do lousy jobs trying to convince viewers they are racist. Ryan Eggold is fine as Ira, a post-World War II Jewish refugee who manages Bayou's trumpet-playing brother and both show up in Georgia strung out on drugs for Ira to heal. Once Ira hears Bayou and his mother sing he realizes that they are the real family talent. Although the mother refuses to leave Georgia, Ira is able to book Bayou and his brother into Chicago's biggest club where all all-black entertainers perform for all-white audiences. Bayou becomes a star with some good records, while his jealous brother falls further into jealous depression and addiction. For me the biggest disappointment was the so-so musical score and music scenes generally. I am a huge fan of the blues and the early jazz pioneered by black musicians, but here I was hard-pressed to find any of the numbers which did not disappoint. All in all, this should have been a much better movie given the story it tries to tell. Maybe this generation of actors simply lacks the life experiences their predecessors faced in dealing with southern racist America. It would be interesting to see this movie remade with a much better cast who can convey the emotions and feelings these actors could not do. Despite all these flaws, the movie is watchable and has its moments. The cinematography is especially good.
Review of A Jazzman's Blues
