The Fighting Temptations

The Fighting Temptations

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jonathan Lynn
Produced by David Gale
Loretha C. Jones
Benny Medina
Jeff Pollack
Written by Elizabeth Hunter
Saladin K. Patterson
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr.
Beyoncé Knowles
Mike Epps
Steve Harvey
Music by Jimmy Jam
Beyoncé Knowles
Terry Lewis
James "Big Jim" Wright
Cinematography Affonso Beato
Edited by Paul Hirsch
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • September 19, 2003
Running time
 123 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $30 million
Box office $32,750,821

The Fighting Temptations is a 2003 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Lynn, written by Elizabeth Hunter and Saladin K. Patterson, and distributed by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films. The main plot revolves around Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who travels to his hometown of Monte Carlo, Georgia as he attempts to revive a church choir in order to enter a gospel competition with the help of a beautiful lounge singer, Lilly (Beyoncé Knowles), with whom he falls in love.[1] Darrin and Lilly must work together to bring the church community together, while developing a romantic relationship.

The film is notable for its soundtrack and ensemble cast. The film received mixed reviews upon release.

Plot

The film begins in the year 1980, where a young boy named Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his mother, MaryAnn (Faith Evans), are run out of town after MaryAnn was soon discovered to be a singing secular music when she sings in a church choir also. Aunt Sally (Ann Nesby) attempts to defend MaryAnn, but it fails. The church's cowardly pastor, Reverend Lewis (Wendell Pierce), is too afraid of the other church members to let her stay. MaryAnn and Darrin are last seen saying goodbye to Aunt Sally, as they sadly wave goodbye with each other. In 2003, Darrin has grown up to become a successful advertising executive in New York City with a bad habit of lying. Darrin's best friend and secretary, Rosa Lopez (Lourdes Benedicto), does a good job at keeping his credit problems under control. However, Darrin has achieved so much under false pretenses and faked his college degree and high school diploma. Darrin also lied about being the son of a congressman, and his lies soon catch up with him and get him in trouble with his paranoid boss (Dakin Matthews) and Darrin loses his job. After being tracked down by a private investigator, Darrin soon finds out that Aunt Sally has died.

Darrin returns to his hometown of Monte Carlo, Georgia and looks back on both comical and heartbreaking memories of MaryAnn and the experiences they had together. When Darrin arrives, he finds a new friendship in Lucious (Mike Epps), the town's happy-go-lucky cab driver. Lucious is obsessed with women's booties and even proclaims himself a "Booty expert" and "Bootyologist". At Aunt Sally's funeral, Shirley Caesar makes a cameo appearance as a character who was an old friend of Sally and sings at the funeral. After the funeral, Darrin soon learns from the Reverend that Aunt Sally had stated in her will that he must direct the church choir and enter the annual "Gospel Explosion" competition and win the prize money of $10,000 and Aunt Sally's stock in the company that produces the show which is currently worth $150,000. The main problem Darrin must deal with is the church treasurer, Paulina (Latanya Richardson), who is also the Reverend's sister and the same woman who pressured MaryAnn into leaving Monte Carlo. Paulina despises Darrin because of MaryAnn and she also thinks he stole her "dream job" as choir director, as she has waited years for Sally to pass away. Darrin and Lucious later visit a night club, where Darrin eventually reunites with his old childhood friend named Lilly (Beyoncé Knowles), who happens to be the tavern's headliner. Darrin first hears Lilly sing at the club when she performs "Fever", and attempt to flirt with her, but Lilly coldly rejects Darrin by saying she has a jealous "boyfriend" named Dean. After many failed auditions, Darrin finally finds good singers, but most of them want to get paid. He cons them into the choir by saying that he will pay them half of the prize money, but secretly has no intentions of paying anybody. After a stressful effort, Darrin finally convinces Lilly to join the choir, and also bonds with Dean thereafter, who is actually her 9-year-old son she had out of wedlock.

Later on, Paulina reveals that Darrin forgot to enter the choir into the auditions. Luckily, the audition judge, Luther Washington (Faizon Love), who is also the town's prison warden, lets them perform in a show for his prisoners when the booked act fails to arrive. Thanks to Lilly's beautiful looks and voice, the choir performs well and Washington lets them into the competition. Washington also lets Darrin use three convicts who can sing well. The three convicts are Bee-Z Briggs, Lightfoot, and Mr. Johnson (T-Bone, Chris Cole, and Montell Jordan). After weeks of success, the choir has become more popular, more people have joined the church and the choir. Darrin also begins dating Lilly. However, Paulina takes a message for Darrin in a phone call from Rosa and learns of his past troubles, and intends on exposing him the first chance she gets. The next afternoon at a church barbecue, Paulina deliberately reveals Darrin's secrets with a polite demeanor, in order to make herself look innocent. Lilly is furious and heartbroken about this and the people who he promised money to begin to panic, and tells Darrin that she doesn't care what he does, she was only using him because he was using her.

Since Lilly wants nothing to do with him, Darrin decides to quit and returns to New York, where he has been offered his job back. However, Darrin goes back and gets a new condo and a promotion, and comes to realize that none of these things mean anything without Lilly and the choir. Darrin quits his job and returns to Monte Carlo to reconcile with Lilly. Darrin and Lilly recruits Lucious and the Reverend and all of them rush down to the Gospel Explosion to join the choir for the performance. When Darrin and Lilly arrive, they manage to convince the others to vote Paulina out of the choir, giving Darrin his position as director back. Before their performance begins, Darrin tells Lilly that she inspired him to name the choir The Fighting Temptations. After an outstanding performance, the choir wins the competition, but before ending his acceptance speech, Darrin surprises Lilly with an unexpected marriage proposal, to which she accepts. Eighteen months later, the two are shown to be happily married with a baby of their own.

Cast

Cameos

Production

The film crew used several locations throughout Georgia. The final scene was filmed in Columbus, GA at the River Center for Performing Arts. Several of the extras were local residents of Columbus, GA.

Reception

The music of the film received universal acclaim, most notably, Beyoncé's cover of "Fever".

However, the film itself received generally mixed reviews upon its release. The film was criticized for its allegedly poor dialogue, rehashed premise and romantic chemistry between the film's lead actors (Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyoncé Knowles) as well as their noticeable age difference. Despite the mixed reviews the film opened at #2. Notably, Ebert & Roeper reviewed the film and Roger Ebert gave it thumbs up, while Richard Roeper gave it thumbs down. It holds a 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie was a disappointment at the box office, with a worldwide gross of US$32,445,215 and did not garner enough revenue for a second installment to go into production (though the primary actors had signed on for one).

However, the cast themselves were very pleased with the film, citing its uplifting story and soundtrack. Gooding has confessed in several interviews following the film's release that he enjoyed filming his kissing scenes with Knowles. In a 2011 interview on The Late Late Show, Gooding made a humorous reference to this by saying: (In the false words of the host) "Didn't he make love with Beyoncé on the set of something?".

Soundtrack

A soundtrack accompanied the film and was released by Sony on September 9, 2003[2] prior to the film itself. The soundtrack received generally positive reviews and was more successful than the film itself. Only one song from the album, "Summertime", is not included in the movie. The late R&B legend Luther Vandross also recorded a song for the film called "Shine" but it failed to make the final cut of the film as well as the soundtrack. The most obvious reference to this is the fact that Vandross frequently says the title of the film in the song. The song "Come Back Home" appears in the film, but was not included on the soundtrack album. It also noted that several other songs performed during the movie including "Church Is in Mourning (Aunt Sally's Funeral Tribute)" by Shirley Caesar, "Won't Ever Change" by Mary Mary, "Waiting" by Ramiyah, and "Soldier" by The Blind Boys of Alabama, were also not included on the soundtrack.

  1. "Fighting Temptation" — Beyoncé (feat. Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, and Free)
  2. "I Know" — Destiny's Child
  3. "Rain Down" — Eddie Levert Sr. and Angie Stone
  4. "To da River" — T-Bone, Lil Zane, and Montell Jordan
  5. "I'm Getting Ready" — Ann Nesby
  6. "The Stone" — Shirley Caesar and Ann Nesby
  7. "Heaven Knows" — Faith Evans
  8. "Fever" — Beyoncé
  9. "Everything I Do" — Beyoncé and Bilal
  10. "Loves Me Like a Rock" — The O'Jays
  11. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" — Beyoncé
  12. "He Still Loves Me" — Walter Williams Sr. and Beyoncé
  13. "Time to Come Home" — Beyoncé, Melba Moore, and Angie Stone
  14. "Don't Fight the Feeling" — Solange and Papa Reu
  15. "Summertime" — Beyoncé (feat. P. Diddy) (Note: This is the only song that does not appear in the film)

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on February 3, 2004. It was later released onto iTunes and PlayStation Store in 2007. That same year, the film was reissued with new cover art. As of 2014, it has yet to be released on Blu-ray Disc.

Planned sequel

In a 2003 interview with Mickey Jones, (who had a supporting role in the film), for HollywoodJesus.com, he stated that he hoped the film performed well because all of the principal actors had signed on for a sequel. But as of 2014, a decade after the film's release, nothing has been announced about a sequel. More than likely, a sequel may not be made due to the film barely making its budget during its theatrical run and the mixed reviews it received.

Awards and nominations

Ceremony Recipient Category Result
BET Comedy Awards Beyoncé Knowles Outstanding Actress in a Box-Office Movie Nominated
Mike Epps Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Box-Office Movie Nominated
Black Reel Awards Cuba Gooding Jr. Best Actor Nominated
Beyoncé Knowles Best Actress Nominated
Elizabeth Hunter
Saladin K. Patterson		 Best Screenplay Original or Adapted Nominated
Best Film Nominated
Best Film Soundtrack Won
"He Still Loves Me" Best Film Song Won
Golden Raspberry Awards Cuba Gooding Jr. Worst Actor Nominated
Image Awards Outstanding Motion Picture Won
Beyoncé Knowles Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Nominated

References

  1. ↑ "The Fighting Temptations". IMDb. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  2. ↑ Fighting Temptations. "Fighting Temptations: Music". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-12-12.

External links