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Honey, 2003,
104 minutes, Rated PG-13
By Marona Lowe
More
after school special than major motion picture, Universal's Honey
is overloaded with enough pop music cameos to make eyes roll and
enough artificial sweetness to cause cavities. Directed by Bille
Woodruff, a well-known music video director, Honey stars
Jessica Alba (Dark Angel) as the saccharine protagonist Honey Daniels.
A youth leader and upstart dancer, Daniels tries to succeed in the
music video business without initially trying.
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Bartending at a club
to make ends meet, Daniels hits the dance floor when her shift ends
and the last Cosmo is poured. As deftly as Daniels shakes and stirs at
the bar, she is much better shaking her groove thing. When a video
director's flunky captures Daniels' acrobatic moves, she gets her
Capezio-encased foot in the showbiz door. Without a doubt, Daniels has
skills. But video director Michael Ellis (David Moscow) is as
impressed with her honey-faced beauty as he is with her grace. Due to
Ellis' mentoring hand, Daniels becomes a professional dancer and then
a choreographer with breathtaking speed. But when Daniels spurns
Ellis' amorous advances, she and her Capezio's are thrown out of the
video business with yesterday's trash.
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But
have no fear, this studio film ends in an upbeat fashion that panders
to the teens and 'tweens it is created for - Daniels makes a
principled reentry into the business and she reconciles her community
and commercial leanings.
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While ultimately a
story with positive messages about the nature of success and community
values, Honey suffers from mediocre direction, inconsistent
performances, Alba's downright awful attempt at a NY accent and a Toronto setting that lacks credibility as a South
Bronx neighborhood. Most troubling, however, is the film's
unsophisticated story development. With too much screen time devoted
to the behind-the-scenes production of music videos and upchuckingly
cute shots of Zachary Isaiah Williams (as Raymond), director Woodruff
gives short shrift to fleshing out the film's central characters and
meaningfully delving into Daniels' artistic background. Nevertheless,
the film's dance sequences are tight and the soundtrack is loaded with
dance-inducing tunes.
M
December 2003
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