Too much idle, not nearly enough wild

About one-third of the musical “Idlewild” is fresh and wildly entertaining thanks to both the songs (a fusion of hip-hop, rap and jazz, written and performed by the hip-hop duo OutKast) and the fast, cool direction of Bryan Barber, in his first feature film. In these musical numbers the viewer is thrust into a toe-tapping, smile-laden frenzy as the scenes and songs unfold in a high-paced whirl of action. It is then incredibly frustrating and unfortunate that the other two-thirds of the film are left to Barber’s horribly clichéd, historically inaccurate and utterly confused story.
Barber’s story is so uninspired and derivative it’s as if he has actually copied characters, dialogue and motifs out of some cliché handbook – think bullet-stopping bible, gangster with heart of gold, and lines like, “You’re not from around here, are you?” The resulting story is like the bastard child of “Moulin Rouge” and the “Cotton Club” with extra gangster and whore clichés thrown in just to make sure we get the setting.
The film takes place in the 1930’s in the quaint African-American community of Idlewild, Ga., and focuses on the lives of Percival (Andre Benjamin) and Rooster (Antwan A. Patton); a familiar story about childhood friends from opposite sides of the track. Percival, the ‘good’ one, is the son of a strict mortician and Rooster, the bootlegger’s son, represents trouble.
The opening sequence shows the two as children who quickly form a bond; and though the film incessantly reminds us how close they are, they strangely do not share a scene again until the final, forced act. The midsection focuses on the two separately, while Barber simultaneously attempts to see just how many stories he can squeeze into one two-hour film.
Rooster runs the town’s speakeasy, ironically called the Church, where he feels pressure from the town’s corrupt gangster (Terrence Howard) and from his wife who wants him to lead a straighter, safer life for her and their kids. Percival works at his father’s mortuary but dreams of being a famous musician, even though he has horrible stage fright (which mysteriously disappears after the first act). Percival also meets and falls in love with the Church’s featured act, Angel Davenport (Paula Patton).
Even when the story is at its cheesiest, Barber’s eye candy and OutKast’s ear candy are so delicious that we almost don’t miss the mind candy – except when the film falls prey to annoyingly overt factual errors. We can overcome and even appreciate the anachronistic songs, but the fact that this prohibition-era film is set in 1935, a whole two years after the prohibition amendment was repealed, is unforgivable. It is this kind of nonchalant disregard and seeming laziness in Barber’s story that is so appalling in contrast to his obvious flare for direction. “Idlewild’s” fantastic acting, music and directing just go to prove that even with the right ingredients you don’t necessarily have the recipe for success; sometimes you just have pure formula.