“CATS”: Hissyfit

Taylor Swift 

Published December 19, 2019 by Robert W. Butler at Butler’s Cinema Scene

My rating:  C+ (Opens wide on Dec. 20 )

110  minutes | MPAA rating: PG

It’s taken the musical “Cats” nearly 40 years to make its way from the stage to the big screen. Now we know why.

Just as there are some novels that defy dramatization, so there are stage productions that derive their power from the interaction of audience and performer, that work precisely because the viewer realizes that all the magic unfolding in front of him/her is being created by real people in real time.

Tom Hooper’s movie version, on the other hand, has been so digitally diddled with that we can’t be sure that anything we’re seeing — from the settings to the performers’ faces — is even remotely real. Characters do impossible flips in the air,  cockroaches march in formation…it’s all so artificial that the film might as well have been done as pure animation (actually that was the plan, back in the ’90s).

That said, the movie “Cats” isn’t a total wipeout. The score (the tunes are by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the lyrics derived from T.S. Eliot’s book of poems Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats) remains humworthy and at least a couple of the performers manage to transcend their hairy makeup (all too often they look like werewolves from a ’60s Hammer film) and establish an emotional connection with the audience.

A big problem is that “Cats” lacks a real story.  On stage this wasn’t a deal breaker…the show was a musical revue with different “cats” taking center stage to sing and dance their signature numbers.  What plot there was dealt with the approaching Jellicle Ball where one lucky feline will be chosen by the ancient Deuteronomy to be reincarnated into a new life (cats get nine of them, after all).

The screenplay by Lee Hall and Hooper  centers on Victoria (ballerina Francesca Hayward, who seems capable of expressing only a quizzical attitude), abandoned by her owner in a dirty alley and adopted into the Jellicle tribe.  Her guide and guardian is Munkstrap (Robbie Fairchild), who introduces her to various other characters and the rundown corner of London they call home.

Idris Elba

To add a bit of tension to the proceedings, the filmmakers have invented a subplot in which Macavity (Idris Elba), the  Mack-the-Knifeish criminal mastermind, kidnaps his competitors for top Jellicle Ball honors. It’s pretty weak stuff.

Highlights?  Well, Jason Derulo brings a big dose of James Brown theatricality to his performance as the bumptious Rum Tum Tugger. Ian McKellan is quite wonderful as Gus the Theatre Cat, delivering a sort of melancholy recitative about his days hanging about the West End. Steven McRae, as Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat, dishes some tapping fury…it’s one of the few times I felt I was actually seeing someone dance.

Taylor Swift (who gets top billing despite only a few minutes of screen time) does well as Bombalurina, singing a sort of vampy burlesque tribute to her sinister boss Macavity.  She’s also credited with writing a new song, “Beautiful Ghosts.”  Gotta be honest…I don’t even recall the number.

As Old Deuteronomy (a role traditionally performed by a man) Judy Dench exudes class even through her bulky Bert Lahr costuming.

And then there’s Jennifer Hudson’s Grizabella, the once-glamorous, now ragged and despised courtesan cat who delivers the show’s big number, “Memory.”  As with the stage show, the entire film builds to that moment and Hudson doesn’t let us down, eschewing vocal pyrotechnics for an almost-hesitant sadness that goes straight for the tear ducts.

The cast also includes Rebel Wilson and James Corden in comedy numbers (both about gluttony); Ray Winstone is wasted as Macavity’s battle-scarred henchman Growltiger; Laurie Davison has a few good moments as Mistoffelees the magical cat.

Those who have seen “Cats” on stage at least have some inkling of what to expect; for the uninitiated I fear this film will be simply overbusy, uninvolving  confusion.

| Robert W. Butler

Read the original review and more reviews at Butler’s Cinema Scene