Quick Review: The Prom

We caught Ryan Murphy's filmed version of The Prom on Netflix the other day, and it's worth a quick mention.

For those who aren't familiar with it (as I wasn't): this is a filmed adaptation of a Broadway musical. A quartet of narcissistic, over-the-hill Broadway stars decide to fix their reputations by finding a good cause to back. The cause they choose is a high-school girl in Indiana who just wants to take her girlfriend to the school prom, who has been foiled by the PTA deciding to cancel the prom in order to prevent her from doing so. Whether she likes it or not, she's getting high-profile help.

The story is neither revolutionary nor high art: our less-than-selfless do-gooders do at least as much harm as good; there are snags and problems along the way; everyone learns valuable life lessons; in the end, there is a happy ending. In clumsy hands, the whole thing would be trite and annoying, but in practice it works, mainly due to excellent execution all around.

The script is solid: quite funny, rarely as cloying as it could have been, a bit sledge-hammery in its message of diversity, but well-delivered. Suffice it to say, Act 1 is pretty predictable (and a bit cynical), then it slams into a brick wall at the act break, and Act 2 is much more grounded. (Those life lessons are learned far more by the grown-ups than the kids.)

The cast is astonishing -- pretty much all of the grown-ups are played by serious stars, starting with Meryl Streep (who has never had more fun chewing scenery than she is having here), James Corden, Nicole Kidman and Andrew Rannells as our Broadway has-beens, Kerry Washington and Keegan-Michael Key as major characters, even Tracey Ullman in a small role. The high schoolers are mostly less known, but that works as well, since they are compared with the mostly-cynical adults.

The music is delightful -- nothing I'm going to hum for the rest of my life, but good enough all around that I might consider picking up the album. (And Nicole Kidman doing a straight-out-of-Fosse number is memorably smoking.)

Overall, while it's not something that I'm going to say you must rush out and watch right now, it's a solidly fun, toe-tapping, upbeat movie musical with a good message, and a fine respite to the stuck-at-home blues. If you have Netflix, check it out...