Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia

A film critic could perhaps pick holes in this as a movie.. but as a musical it was sublime. It brought tears to my eyes.

I have not heard much of Mahalia Jackson's music but the singing in this film would make your hair stand on end Alright, I am a sucker for stomping blues/gospel music and this delivers it in abundance I am still winding down.. Someone above said it was not gritty... well from what I have read her life was not gritty, although she suffered a deal of sorrow her faith kept strong.

I bought this and it took me a few days before I watched it. I cried, I laughed and loved the performance of a beautiful voice I remember from the past and one for 2021 in Danielle. I will watch it again and again.

When I purchased this movie, I doubted it had the budget to capture the talent of Mahalia Jackson. Her voice is one of a kind. However, I was surprised to find Danielle Brooks has a fantastic voice! Nobody can replicate Mahalia, but that's true of all the greatest singers. Brooks is a great singer in her own right and captured just enough of Mahalia to really make the movie work. The film features a great singer and also captured the dynamic personal life of Mahalia.

It seems with lifetime their biopics are usally missing some important components. The script for this wasn't good. Some of the casting was just bad. While Danielle Brooks' singing was pretty good her acting was not. There were, however, some moments in the performances that she did certain things that reminded me of watching Mahalia but those moments were few and very far between in this film. I also wish they had picked more well known Mahalia songs. Danielle can sing but her tone honestly wasn't close to Mahalia's even though at moments she did a pretty good job. There were also a lot of pc sounding speeches that did not reflect Mahalia's beliefs but i think the beliefs of the writers and producers of this film.

This was boring but i kept it on thinking maybe it would be more intersting but it wasn't. The actor playing MLK was so dull my goodness, lol. Some of the wigs they had on Danielle were on point though with what we've seen Mahalia wear before, I gotta say that. Wadrobe did a pretty decent job. That Aretha movie was better than this and I couldn't even finish watching that. If you're looking for a biopic like Ray or the Jacksons please know that this aint it. This is definitely forgettable.

Danielle Brooks was great ! However could've been greater but I felt like she wasn't directed right. Reading some of Mahalia's story key characters missing from this story ! From what I have read she never spoke to Mildred after their falling out so that end scene is disappointing and then a very abrupt ending!!! I understand this is TV movie therefore will not have the same level of budget as movie however just felt like it could have been great movie the potential was there ! It felt censored almost ! I would've like to see more about her involvement in civil rights movement her relationship with JFK etc.