Gospel Strikes Chord In Warm, Fuzzy Flick

Date: December 13, 1996
By Deborah Peterson, Staff

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Submitted by: Larry A.


"THE Preacher's Wife" is ruined by its own good intentions.

Director Penny Marshall ("Big," "A League of Their Own") set out to make a feel-good, crowd-pleasing Christmas movie. Instead she made a feel-so-so, crowd-numbing Christmas movie.

The characters are dull, the story cliched and the script predictable. It's a remake of 1947's "The Bishop's Wife," starring Loretta Young and David Niven as a young church couple and Cary Grant as the angel.

Here, the angel, Denzel Washington, has been plopped down in the middle of a struggling black community in New York. He is there to answer the prayers of the Rev. Henry Biggs (Courtney B. Vance, "Dangerous Minds," "The Last Supper"), the overworked pastor of St. Matthew's Baptist Church.

The reverend is a good man for whom things are going wrong. His church is literally falling apart and his devotion to his parishioners has meant neglect of his wife, Julia (Whitney Houston), and young son, Jeremiah (Justin Pierre Edmund). A rich developer, Joe Hamilton (Gregory Hines), is squeezing St. Matthew's out of the community, and Henry is doubting his adequacy as a husband and as a pastor.

Washington, as Dudley, the angel, tries to level with Henry, who repeatedly dismisses him as just another kook. But Dudley is nothing if not persistent. He's been sent to Earth to help Henry and he will, whether Henry wants him to or not.

Houston is director of the choir at St. Matthew's. In that role we get to see - and hear - her doing what she does best. Backed by an ensemble from the Georgia Mass Choir, Houston proves what we've known all along - the woman can sing, but an actress she is not.

Even Washington, who can lend charm to the dullest of epics, is only ho-hum in the role of Dudley. As the preacher, Vance is stiff and ill-at-ease, except for the final scene in which he preaches a stirring sermon that gets his entire congregation rocking.

St. Louis native Jenifer Lewis, ("What's Love Got To Do With It," "Sister Act") is a big bright spot as Marguerite Coleman, Julia's earthy, wise-cracking mother. The only problem with casting Lewis is that she is far too pretty and young to be believable as Houston's mother.

Another good supporting performance is given by Loretta Devine, ("Waiting to Exhale") as the preacher's secretary.

Over all, Marshall was overly careful in not exploring some of the deeper issues the movie touches on, such as marital and professional insecurity and a crisis of faith. That leaves a movie with great gospel music, attractive stars and some cute-kid shots.

On the plus side, Marshall has made an all-black family film that shows working and middle-class people leading productive and positive lives.