The Fighting Temptations (2003)

(On TV, June 2021) I couldn’t be farther removed from a small-town Georgia black gospel choir, but there’s something curiously comforting in The Fighting Temptations given how it embraces familiar characteristics. Using an urban character returning home as a way into the complexities of a local choir, this is a film built on familiar settings, broad characters and formulaic storytelling. The shortcomings of that mode are obvious, but the underestimated advantage is that nearly every filmgoer, no matter where they come from or what they look like, instantly “knows” what to expect from the characters and the setting. Oh, so the prodigal son returns, eager to get back to Manhattan? Not going to happen. Oh, so the cute childhood crush is back in the picture and she can sing? I know where this is going. This power-mad middle-aged woman is running roughshod over members of the choir? I wouldn’t want to be her at the end of the film! It’s all predictable, but the draw in The Fighting Temptations is more about the actors playing close to their personas, and the choir/gospel music that makes up much of the soundtrack. As such, it’s not bad. Beyoncé Knowles doesn’t stretch too much by playing a singer, while Cuba Gooding Jr. makes for an audience anchor as he goes back home and is saddled with extensive requirements in order to inherit from his deceased aunt. Many bit-players have their own short arc in the ensemble cast of characters, but there isn’t much here to irritate… or to remember. The pieces all fit nicely by the end of the film and we wouldn’t have it any other way. As a sympathetic approximation of churchgoing black life in the small-town south, The Fighting Temptations is quite likable even to those who have never been close to anything like it.