OnScreen Review: "Cats" is really not that bad
Joe Szekeres, Chief Toronto Theatre Critic
It’s probably going to make the Razzies list before this year’s Oscars, but this film version of one of the longest running musicals is not all that bad as the reviews are stating.
Really, it’s not that bad.
Yes, there are some odd and puzzling choices in this Cats from director Tom Hooper, most notable for his film version of one of the world’s most beloved of musicals, Les Miserables, where the cast sang the songs while the film was shot. I remember one of the comic jabs Neil Patrick Harris made during the Tonys towards Hooper on account of his many, many closeup shots in the film where we could see teeth fillings inside the actors’ mouths as they sang.
There are closeups in Cats but I remembered that technique from Les Mis so I was prepared if it would be bothersome. It wasn’t for me. More about closeups and camera work in a few moments.
The current touring production now playing at Toronto’s Princess of Wales and the film take the story from poet T.S. Eliot’s ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’ which he had written for his godchildren. As a retired English teacher, I will admit this book of poetry is probably not the best to showcase Eliot’s influence; however, the poetic word play has been captured for the most part. The word play and rhythms in the delivery of some of the poems in the film are not as successful as the live touring production. I always find “The Naming of Cats” at the top of the live show haunting, for example, as the crispness and enunciation echo throughout the auditorium and always leave me with shivery goosebumps. I didn’t experience that same feeling in watching the film.
When the trailers dropped for the first preview of the film, I remember reading and seeing online the furor about the makeup utilized. Why the hullabaloo? It’s called audience suspending its disbelief since we have entered another world. It worked in 1968 for the first Planet of the Apes with the masks. Yes, it was at first jarring when I was a kid watching Apes but I accepted it after the first few minutes. The same occurred in watching Cats as I accepted the environment of this world. I will admit that James Corden’s makeup as portly Bustopher Jones was a bit much. As Jennyanydots, Rebel Wilson’s costume and makeup made her appear unbelievably behemoth which took me right out of the moment in following her story.
The computer generated images (CGIs) also posed some problems in the reviews I’ve read. I liked the way the film incorporated them. I had entered the world of cats so things are naturally going to be larger or greater in size than I am. I truly believed that I had left Canadian soil to travel to the United Kingdom for one hour and a half. Nevertheless, a question to consider. In our continued acceptance of CGIs to take us where the story wants to take us either on film or in a live presentation, whatever happened just to mere suggestions and the audience uses its imagination to take us where we need to go?
Some of the comments I’ve read about the film bemoan the fact there is no real narrative through line in the story. There is a story line, but I will agree that it might be considered wafer thin – ‘the Jellicle Cats meet once a year at the Jellicle Ball where their leader, Old Deuteronomy, appears and will select the Jellicle cat who will move on to the Heaviside layer for his or her next life.’ Let’s remember that “Cats” is a dance and musical drama. A great deal of the story is told through movement.
Where the film worked beautifully for me was in the selection of certain performers - Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy and Ian McKellan as Gus, the Theatre Cat. There was a regal grace and dignity about these two stalwarts of the theatre. I was a tad bothered in seeing Sir Ian lapping milk from a bowl before he was called to the stage to deliver his story as Gus. I did like Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of the theme song ‘Memory’, but I will be honest and say that I have heard it sung and performed better live by two individuals – Canadian Kathy Michael McGlynn in the original Toronto production and Keri Rene Fuller in the current touring production at the Princess of Wales.
Francesca Hayward from England’s Royal Ballet is a standout as Victoria, the cat who is thrown away in a sack in an alley of London’s Trafalgar Square. Ms. Hayward is a truly magnificent, lithe dancer and captivating to watch on film. Here is someone whom I believe we should be on the watch for in the future.
The closeups of camera work in many of the dance numbers from Andy Blankenbuehler (who will also choregraph the highly anticipated arrival of the musical ‘Hamilton’ in Toronto) are spectacular to watch. I loved the work in ‘The Jellicle Ball’ and the opening movement of the actors at the top of the show in the first number.
Vocally, there are some wonderful musical numbers to hear. I especially liked the “Prologue: Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats”. I also liked the magnificent sounding final number ‘The Addressing of Cats’ which closes the film. A new song by Sir Andrew and Taylor Swift was written for the film entitled ‘Beautiful Ghosts’. Unmemorable and did not advance the plot.
FINAL COMMENTS: Not a ‘CATastrophe’ by any means as there are good moments. I wish there would have been more ‘good moments’ in this Cats as there could have been. Sigh.
Rating: 2.75 stars out of 5.
Still courtesy of Universal Pictures