Pretty Red Dress
An item of clothing changes everything in Dionne Edwards’ seriously misjudged British musical-drama.
Natey Jones. (Image courtesy of BFI)
There can be no doubt at all about this being a film made with the very best of intentions. Its writer/director is Dionne Edwards making her first feature for the cinema following work for television and a number of short films. Since she is herself British (born in Islington) but of Jamaican and Nigerian heritage it is unsurprising that for this debut she has opted to tell the story of a black British family living in south London. This has yielded a tale in which there are three central characters: the parents Travis (Natey Jones) and Candice (The X Factor’s Alexandra Burke) and their 14-year-old daughter, Kemisha (Temilola Olatunbosun). All three players give it their all and for Burke, best known for her singing, the film provides ample proof of her acting ability. Yet, despite having all this going for it, I found Pretty Red Dress dismayingly ineffective. Had I been shown the screenplay before shooting started, I would have seen potential in it but would have immediately declared that it needed to have much more done to it if it were to work.
Given the title of the film, most descriptions of Pretty Red Dress refer to it as the story of how Travis, recently out of prison and restored to his family, purchases the eye-catching garment as a present for Candice who can wear it when auditioning for the central role in a stage musical about Tina Turner. Pivotal to the work, however, is the revelation that Travis himself is attracted by the dress to the extent of wearing it in secret having first put on make-up. That key element has led some critics to compare this film with that engaging and uplifting British movie Kinky Boots (2005) in which Chiwetel Ejiofor played a drag queen, a work which has itself in recent times taken to the stage in a musical version.
The opening of Pretty Red Dress immediately suggests that such a comparison will be apt because, even as the credits unfold, it plunges straight into a big number in a way that invites us to expect a film that will indeed be both upbeat and musical. However, that could not be more inappropriate for, whatever the final outcome, the tone here is for the most part far from upbeat and, while Candice’s auditions provide a subplot, the musical side of the movie never fits well with the drama that is unfolding. This aspect is too incidental for the film to be deemed a musical although some songs are heard (the best such sequence being a rendition of ‘River Deep, Mountain High’) and there is even one big number late on which seems to switch midstream from audition room to stage. But these scenes are presented in a style quite alien to the realistic drama at the heart of the film. This deals with the identity issues that Travis is facing, the rupture in his relationship with Candice when his cross-dressing is revealed and the troubles that daughter Kemisha is having at school. These three elements may be interconnected but they are to some extent distinct and, while each is sympathetically observed, bringing them together leads to an uneasy uncertainty as to the degree of importance to be attached to each one. This deprives the film of a structure that would give one a clear sense of exactly where the film is intending to go. When late on we are suddenly taken to a birthday party for the older brother of Travis (Rolan Bell), it feels irrelevant. What is certain is that Pretty Red Dress is miles away from today's popular entertainments that feature a young gay character who, whatever problems are encountered, is essentially positive in outlook, assertive and destined to triumph. Making Travis such a troubled character gives this piece an old-fashioned air.
If the handling of the various story threads creates problems, it is also the case that, while there is never any risk of viewers laughing in the wrong places (which is not to say that there are no humorous moments) the film is lacking in the kind of dialogue that would make the tale feel compellingly real. There are also individual scenes that strike an unconvincing note (one such episode finds Candice regardless of her alarm and dismay over Travis and his red dress just for once encouraging him to have sex with her when he is wearing it; another reveals her sexual fantasy in which she takes on a dominating role). On top of all of this, I find the decisions that Dionne Edwards makes as director are often decidedly odd. One instance is a scene in which Kemisha is talking to her friend Cicely (Maria Almeida). It is shot pointlessly and distractingly with a circling camera movement. Elsewhere the camera angles chosen can make heads loom in interior scenes, again without any obvious justification, and several times one is aware of shots that do not allow for smooth editing. But the two most strikingly awful examples both feature Alexandra Burke's head: in one shot it is only partially visible at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen and in another Burke is framed so that her head is actually cut off at the top of the screen. In both cases it looks ridiculous and should it be suggested that these framings are meaningful in a deeply symbolical way I can only say that that possibility did not occur to me!
The cast display quite enough talent to have made this material sympathetic and appealing had it been worked through and handled in a different way. One interesting generational touch lies in the fact that young Kemisha is better able than her mother to accept and come to terms with what the red dress signifies about Travis. But that aspect could have been developed further, just as Kemisha’s own situation is suggested rather than investigated in any detail. Furthermore, there remains a certain ambiguity over Travis himself since one could see him either as essentially heterosexual with a non-macho side that leads him to find satisfaction in cross-dressing or as someone starting out on a journey that could lead him eventually to recognition of being gay. There is a climactic scene at Kemisha’s school which brings the three main characters together but even here the director can't resist a touch that feels ill-judged as she brings in orchestral music to replace further words being spoken so that we do not hear what they are. With so much good work being done by the actors, it is a great shame that Pretty Red Dress is so inept in so many ways.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Natey Jones, Alexandra Burke, Temilola Olatunbosun, Rolan Bell, Maria Almeida, Nicholas Bishop, Maria Crittell, Dexter Flanders, Thomas Grant, Basit Ayanwusi, Jasmine Atkins-Smart, Eddison Joseph.
Dir Dionne Edwards, Pro Georgia Goggin, Screenplay Dionne Edwards, Ph Adam Scarth, Pro Des Phoebe Platman, Ed Adonis Trattos, Music Brijs, Costumes Nirage Mirage.
BBC Film/BFI Film Fund/Magellanic Media/Sundance Institute/Teng Teng Films-BFI.
110 mins. UK. 2022. UK Rel: 16 June 2023. Cert. 15.
