The story focuses on Noni, an British female R&B singer of mixed race parents who struggled against a heavier burden of competition with the racial prejudice on her. Now all grown up, she has made it in the USA, a famous and successful singer, now the girlfriend of a famous rapper. But she feels she's only being taken advantages of and not being considered as a person. After winning an award one night, she instead tries to commit suicide by jumping from her apartment balcony. A police officer Kaz, who was replacing a friend for a bodyguard detail, steps in and helps her from falling. Although Kaz initially avoids Noni because he was forced to lie at a subsequent press conference, they eventually become close. Kaz convinces Noni to be more courageous and stand up for herself, to have her boyfriend treat her better, and to insist that her songs be included in her next album. She musters up courage and softly breaks up with the rapper. Noni and Kaz then hook up and become a couple.
But at a performance, the rapper comes on stage and humiliate Noni. Kaz goes on stage and eventually punches him on camera. Kaz's father scolds him for that due to it will damage Kaz's reputation for an upcoming candidacy at an important office. Kaz ignores it and helps to smuggle Noni out of the press' attention. They then go to have some time alone down in Mexico. Noni really enjoys the situation where she's not known and can roam freely without photographers following her. But her mother finds their place. She convinces her to finish the album promo, despite Kaz's disagreement. Noni goes back to attend a recording label meeting about her album. She demands her songs to be put in it, to the disapproval of the label. Noni then declares she resigns from the label, also discharging her mother from the position of her manager. She then goes back to to UK to perform. Kaz goes there and meets her in the back- stage, where he confirms his love for her. Noni continues on to her performance, singing her own new song instead of the one requested on her.
For me the story only has slightly less than adequate appeal to it in overall. The story isn't that strong in total. Even the emotional parts of it don't seem to hit the spot right. The background story is quite moving, but development of Kaz's background and his dilemma between of the position is quite strange. The rest of the other characters beside the two main characters are also not really developed well. Noni's mother has a significant portion to the story but we don't really see much of her in substantial story screen time. The opposite happens to Kaz's father, who has more than enough screen time despite his more insignificant role in the story.
Yes this movie can quite grasp the drama aspect that it targets. All those emotional content are well built on the foundation of the racial prejudice thing and even on the gender inequality thing later on. But truthfully, that's just it. The romance that should be another nice focus for this movie doesn't seem to be a good attention grabber. I really think this movie should be developed even way more better before it's realized.
The acting overall falls slightly below my expectations. For such an emotional aim of the story, the acting quality is not really that good. Gugu Mbatha-Raw doesn't seem to realize that she has so much close-up shots on her that she doesn't showcase a great variation in facial expressions, even in the music video and stage performance scenes. Nate Parker is as similar, his face is dominantly flat in all conditions of the scenes. Having Minnie Driver and Danny Glover doesn't help at all in raising the acting quality overall.
For me, a 5 out of 10 score is just enough for this movie. It sure can be a better entertainment provided that the story development doesn't just leave this undercooked tale like this and the direction can lift the acting better.
But at a performance, the rapper comes on stage and humiliate Noni. Kaz goes on stage and eventually punches him on camera. Kaz's father scolds him for that due to it will damage Kaz's reputation for an upcoming candidacy at an important office. Kaz ignores it and helps to smuggle Noni out of the press' attention. They then go to have some time alone down in Mexico. Noni really enjoys the situation where she's not known and can roam freely without photographers following her. But her mother finds their place. She convinces her to finish the album promo, despite Kaz's disagreement. Noni goes back to attend a recording label meeting about her album. She demands her songs to be put in it, to the disapproval of the label. Noni then declares she resigns from the label, also discharging her mother from the position of her manager. She then goes back to to UK to perform. Kaz goes there and meets her in the back- stage, where he confirms his love for her. Noni continues on to her performance, singing her own new song instead of the one requested on her.
For me the story only has slightly less than adequate appeal to it in overall. The story isn't that strong in total. Even the emotional parts of it don't seem to hit the spot right. The background story is quite moving, but development of Kaz's background and his dilemma between of the position is quite strange. The rest of the other characters beside the two main characters are also not really developed well. Noni's mother has a significant portion to the story but we don't really see much of her in substantial story screen time. The opposite happens to Kaz's father, who has more than enough screen time despite his more insignificant role in the story.
Yes this movie can quite grasp the drama aspect that it targets. All those emotional content are well built on the foundation of the racial prejudice thing and even on the gender inequality thing later on. But truthfully, that's just it. The romance that should be another nice focus for this movie doesn't seem to be a good attention grabber. I really think this movie should be developed even way more better before it's realized.
The acting overall falls slightly below my expectations. For such an emotional aim of the story, the acting quality is not really that good. Gugu Mbatha-Raw doesn't seem to realize that she has so much close-up shots on her that she doesn't showcase a great variation in facial expressions, even in the music video and stage performance scenes. Nate Parker is as similar, his face is dominantly flat in all conditions of the scenes. Having Minnie Driver and Danny Glover doesn't help at all in raising the acting quality overall.
For me, a 5 out of 10 score is just enough for this movie. It sure can be a better entertainment provided that the story development doesn't just leave this undercooked tale like this and the direction can lift the acting better.