Honey

Review by Clint Morris

When Jennifer Beals skimmed across those polished floor boards, twirling her tracksuit-pant adorned legs to the beat of a ticket to dance school, little did Flashdance’s encouraging audience know they were also cheering on – and giving birth – to a storm of "I wanna be a dancer – I wanna be a singer" movies for the next two or three decades.

From the country hicks Feel the Beat theme of Footloose [1984] to the white-rapper with the hot notes in 8 Mile [2002], we’ve met an entire class of wannabe artists over the years – and there’s no sign that anyone’s clogged up the hole they’re crawling out through the woodwork from.

“Hip Hop can’t take you to places Ballet can,” expresses ghetto girl Honey Daniels’s [Jessica Alba] caring but fair-minded mother.

But philanthropic, perceptibly able Honey shows them all by being discovered by a successful music-video maker [David Moscow] and before too long, starring in and choreographing some of hip hop’s biggest name’s videos.

But Honey discovers fame is not all it’s cracked up to be, and with the help of some younger friends again experiences what the joy of dance is all about and – bet you didn’t see this coming – discovers friendship is more important than bank.

Honey utilises every cliché in the book. From the obstructive parent, to the pig manager, the friends back home that have been left behind and the ‘price of fame’ message, they’re all here. You’ll also find it hard to get past that ominous, corny dialogue and set-up.

You mightn’t notice it as much, or the clichés, with the thumping tunes and endless video-clips that are playing throughout, ideally leaving teens toe-tapping, not tomato tossing.

And that’s exactly the impetus of the film. It doesn’t care about the 60 year old guy at the back who hasn’t a clue what "that’s so down" means or what spasm the kid on the left is having, nor does it seem to care about us critics, who have - sad to say - judged the film before we’ve walked into the theatre having smelt the formula from the end of the street.

No, what the filmmakers want is that 16 year old high-schooler, that wannabe dance student, and the bubblegum chewing under-15 netball team – and it’ll get them.

From it’s opening music track to Alba’s very likeable, very earnest performance, as well as the steady, token-good guy Mekhi Phifer and of course, the film’s endless array of superbly choreographed dance sequences, it delivers to its market quite successfully.

It’s unashamedly old-hat, endlessly corny, and yet it seems to desire to be no more than just that. Honey doesn’t want Oscars, it wants MTV Movie Awards.

Having said that, it falls somewhat short of its predecessors, with films like Centre Stage, Save the Last Dance and the popular 8 Mile, packing a little more punch, not only in the dance or singing stakes, but in narrative too.

But knowing there’s a 16 year old girl out there, who’s going to walk out of Honey with the biggest, widest smile on her face, only deters reviewers from putting it down.

It snaps, crackles and pops along to a dynamic beat and its got heart, and to a dull-eyed teenager sometimes that’s just what the doctor ordered. Won’t be any young male companions complaining about the attractive lead star - front row centre either. Alba’s quite easy on the eye, and admittedly, a bit of a star in the making.

When Flashdance was first released in 1982, it was labeled one of the year’s biggest turkeys. These days, it’s a semi-classic. Be interesting to see how we more skeptical, older, more demanding viewers view Honey in a decade.

3 out of 5

Honey
Australian release: Thursday January 8th
Cast: Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer, Joy Bryant, Lil’ Romeo, David Moscow, Missy Elliot.
Director: Bille Woodruff.
Website: Click here.