Sparkle

Though this film was filled with good performances, the film ultimately fell flat with its serious flaws.
The idea is simple. Sparkle (Jordin Sparks, appropriate with her name and everything) is a songwriter, but is too nervous to sing. Her oldest sister, Sister (a great Carmen Ejogo) to sing them instead. Sister, who has a history that is not revealed) is loaded with sex appeal which appeals to the men in the audience. Sister is dating this good but bland guy Levi (Omari Hardwick) who lives with his cousin, Stix (Derek Luke) who is a budding agent. He wants the group of sisters to become famous. Sparkle is in as is the middle sister, Dolores, but called Dee (a scene-stealing Tika Sumpter) is in, but only until she gets into medical school so she can become a doctor. Finally, Sister also gives in. However, they all have to sneak around their mother, Emma (Whitney Houston, in her last role) who also has a history that is never fully revealed. She was also a budding singer who had almost made it, but then at sixteen, she became pregnant and never went anywhere. Still, she must be making a pretty good living for herself as she owns her own clothing store and a large house with a color TV, and this is 1968, color TVs were rare. Emma is also quite religious, church is her main purpose. She demands that her daughters curl their hair and go to bed so they can be ready for church in the morning.
Soon, a conflict arises. Sister dumps Levi for no real reason and becomes engaged to a comedian with a drug problem, Satin (Mike Epps). Needless to say, Sister is kicked out of the house. She goes to live with Satin and soon also becomes addicted to drugs. This ruins the sisters one chance at becoming famous. By that time, they were a huge hit in the nightclub scene and men drooled over them constantly.
After Sister ruins their chances, Sparkle and Dee go to rescue her from her abusive fiance, but that  ends horribly. Satin ends up slapping Sparkle and the sisters try to defend her. The fight turns nasty and Dee ends it when she picks up a poker and whams it across the back of Satin's head, killing him. Sister takes the blame for this, going to jail for a few years.
In the meantime, Dee gets accepted into medical school and Sparkle, sick of dealing with her mother, gets her own place and finally gets the guy at Colombia to give her another chance and he does. Stix, who left after their chances were ruined, returns proposes to Sparkle and this time, she says yes, like she should have the first time and creates an amazing show for her. Sparkle will get her record deal and become famous. Emma even comes around, though her motives are not at all clear or known.
The performances were great. Jordin Sparks starts off weak, but that's because her character is poorly written until Act III. Whitney Houston does what she can with the weakest character in the film, she deserved better. Carmen Ejogo is great with the juicest and most dramatic character in the film. Tika Sumpter provided the comic relief and made her small, unwritten role unforgettable. The songs were also quite good as all actors had great voices. There were some awful editing choices, including opting to have one of the fight scenes between Satin and Sister in slow motion, making it much more comedic than it should have been. There were also the huge plot holes, including never fully explaining Sister's past, though Dee says that is near thirty and not yet married. And why does Emma change so suddenly at the end? And what is her real history? Why is she so religious when she was probably never married, but still managed to have three daughters? And how can she afford that house? The actors deserved, especially Whitney deserved a better finished product than what they received. Grade: B-