The Prom (2020)

Musical Comedy - The Prom review by GI

This musical comedy, adapted from a successful Broadway show, flits between corny to goofy to downright dire at times. Equally your view will alter as you watch it from worrying you'll never get the time back to actually it's quite funny and enjoyable. Overall it's completely bonkers, over the top and is probably a 'marmite' film, you'll either love it or hate it. It's the story of four egocentric theatre performers who are either down on their luck (Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells) or wounded by the bad reviews from their last show (Meryl Streep, James Corden), who decide to find a 'cause' that will win them some much needed publicity. They alight on the plight of Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman), a gay student banned from attending her High School prom because she wanted to take another woman as her date. Heading off to the small ultra conservative town to 'help' Emma the four cause more trouble than they heal but eventually manage to persuade the townspeople of the error of their ways. I'm not giving away any spoilers here because the entire plot is predictable at every turn and there's no reason it shouldn't be. This isn't a social drama about tolerance per se, this is utilising that theme, amongst a few others mixed in too, to bring a musical with a message. To be honest I can't remember one song other than one about "love thy neighbour" trumps all other bible lessons. But this is probably due to there being so many songs going on here. Streep plays it for all its worth and showcases her musical talents, Kidman is a little underused and fun when she's on screen but Corden is a strange piece of casting playing his part as high camp and I've no doubt it will cause controversy for his interpretation of a gay man, actually he's just annoying. As I said you'll either love it or hate it or perhaps, like me, end up somewhat indifferent suffice to say it has a happy ending.....thank goodness.