The Preacher's Wife Could Use A Prayer

Date: December 13, 1996
By Jackie Potts, Staff Writer

From The Miami Herald
Submitted by: Larry A.


Whitney Houston makes a joyful noise as a God-fearing, gospel-singing matron in The Preacher's Wife , but not even her golden pipes can energize this creaky remake.

Dipped in sentiment and glazed with nostalgia, The Preacher's Wife is a paean to that 1947 bauble, The Bishop's Wife, which starred Cary Grant as a dapper angel sent from the ether to save the marriage and parish of a dispirited bishop (David Niven) and his long-suffering wife (Loretta Young) just in time for Christmas.

Nearly 40 years later, director Penny Marshall tries to translate that warm and fuzzy 1940s idealism into the hard-nosed '90s with dim results. Painfully slow and old-fashioned, The Preacher's Wife is a far cry from Marshall's earlier comedies (Big, A League of Their Own) -- or even her perky K mart commercials.

Part of the problem lies in the movie's dated characters, especially bespectacled Courtney B. Vance (Dangerous Minds, Panther), who is all-too-humorless as pastor Henry Biggs.

Houston is his frustrated wife Julia. Once a slinky torch singer at a local nightclub owned by a slick pianist (Lionel Richie), Julia is now content to wear bulky choir robes and raise her voice in hymn.

The movie springs to life during rousing church scenes. Houston is terrific when belting out electrified gospel numbers like Hold On, Help is on the Way. She gets a little help from her mother Cissy, who has a cameo as a choir member.

But she sleepwalks through scenes as the dignified mother, doing little more than tucking in her 6-year-old son (Justin Pierre Edmund). It's not a showy role, but Houston plays it as if the frost outdoors has settled on her shoulders. Hand her a microphone and she thaws in a flash.

Denzel Washington is the ace in this remake -- and not just because he's one of the few actors today who can pull off the fedora look. As the Biggs' glib, otherworldly houseguest, Washington plays Dudley with a 100-watt smile and a childlike sense of wonder. He arrives hoping to help Henry rekindle his marriage and to resist the lure of a greedy urban developer (a smirking Gregory Hines).

For a film extolling heavenly virtues and the power of faith, The Preacher's Wife is strangely solemn. Although Washington and Houston engage in mild flirtation, it's only when Jenifer Lewis, as Julia's tart-tongued mother, unleashes her acid wit, that the movie entertains. When Lewis isn't on screen, the movie begins to feel very long indeed.

* * THE PREACHER'S WIFE (PG)