The performances are solid but Reddy's character is thin. It must have taken immense courage for a 25-year-old single mother to move, essentially on her own, to America in the 60s to pursue a singing career. Yet, little of that tenacity and grit come through. Instead, the film gives a somewhat hokey retelling of the events of her life, without ever revealing anything interesting or complex about Reddy as a person.
It's riddled with cliches and unusually long stage performances that are presumably designed to showcase the music but Reddy was never a very dynamic stage presence and Tilda Cobham-Hervey portrays her accurately.
I was shocked to learn in the car afterwards that Greg enjoyed the film. I suspect it has something to do with his fear of criticising feminist content. He's cautious and self-policing and I love that about him. Sadly for the film-makers, however, I've been belting out "I am strong. I am invincible" non-stop since the screening, so my veins are pumped with fierce feminine energy and I'm not in the mood to pull any punches.
HE SAW
I have long loved the song I Am Woman. It has always made me want to jump up and start a social movement but, upon its ending, I have always felt the motivation depart and have descended back into my life of comfortable humdrum.
The song played from start to finish twice during the movie that borrows its name and both times I got goosebumps, tears in my eyes and the rushing desire to be a better person. But those were the only times during its approximately two hours I felt much of anything. It was a nice enough film, just a bit predictable, unfolding narratively as all musical biopics do - obscurity, fame, drugs, fall, redemption.
Underlying the movie, of course, is all the suffering and bulls*** that has always accompanied being a woman. What is it like to be a woman? I can never know for sure, but from the outside It looks hard.
The lyric "If I have to, I can do anything", Zanna told me, is a great one, perfectly capturing something about the female experience. I didn't really understand what she meant specifically, so I tried to guess but that turned out to be the wrong move, because she had been about to explain it to me. I shut up and allowed her to speak but I can no longer remember what she said.
What I do remember is that she hated the movie. At one stage, after one of the characters told another to "f*** off", she leaned over and said to me, "I wish someone would say that to me."
I said, "Do you mean you'd like to leave?"
She said "Yes."
It's very rare for her to hate a movie - that's typically my job - so I wondered what was going on for her. I thought maybe she suspected I hated it, was upset by that thought and so was getting in a sort of pre-emptive hate, in the hope it would make mine sting less. As I write this, though, I can imagine her reading it and saying, "That's a very narcissistic take." Maybe she's right. I can't be sure - privilege is a very difficult thing to spot from the inside.
Another truly great lyric, Zanna told me later, is "Yes, I am wise, but it's wisdom born of pain." I can see some ways those words might constitute greatness but none so clearly that I would presume to tell her what they are.
I Am Woman is in cinemas now.
