HOLIDAY HEART
US, 2000, 100 minutes, Colour.
Vin Rhames, Alfre Woodard, Mykelti Williamson, Jessika Quynn Reynolds.
Directed by Robert Townsend.
Vin Rhames is not the actor that one would immediately think of for casting as a drag queen. However, despite his appearance, he is quite persuasive in his manner, mannerisms and his vocal impersonations of songs at the cabaret.
This is a film which is a blend of the serious, the comic and the highly emotional. Rhames plays a drag queen with a difficult past who by chance encounters a drug addict mother and her young daughter. He takes them in and helps them and, despite their not wanting to be dependent on him, the mother relies on his help for raising her daughter, especially after she disappears. The mother is played strongly by Alfre Woodard. The father of the girl, a drug dealer who does not take drugs himself, is played by Mykelti Williamson.
The little girl is played very strongly by Jessika Quynn Reynolds. Amongst the issues covered are drug addiction, abandonment of children, addicted mothers stealing from their children. The focus on the drag queen raises issues of homosexual partnerships and, far more strongly, the possibility of a homosexual man being an effective emotional parent for a little girl. There are some explicit discussions about these issues throughout the film.
In the end, the mother completely fails, but the father does give his support and the little girl has the emotional back-up of two adults – although she is a very strong person in her own right.
The film was directed by African American actor Robert Townsend who also directed a number of films, Hollywood Shuffle, The Five Heartbeats.
1.A slice of African American life? A piece of Americana? The comic, the serious, the emotional?
2.The title, Holiday Heart as a character? Heart and feelings?
3.The American cities, homes and streets, poverty, drug areas, clubs, school? The ugliness, the ordinariness? The drugs and prostitution and violence issues?
4.The club, the drag singers, the audience, the range of songs, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Baby Love…?
5.The portrait of Holiday, the later information about his life as a child, his mother and his defence of her, the death, her putting him in prison? His being used in prison? His homosexual orientation? His partnership with Fisher, the police, the house? Fisher’s death, funeral, his dressing up and singing at the ceremony? The police and the quizzical looks? His being ridiculed? His career at the club, talent, audience? His hopes for going to Paris, buying the ticket, putting off the trip? His talk of love, the importance of being loved?
6.Sexual orientation issues, character, bonds, sharing? Holiday and his giving his love to Niki? The morality of love, sexuality, in context?
7.The issue of homosexuality and parenting, the gay sensibility, Holiday and his capacity for fathering and mothering?
8.Holiday and Blue, their dressing up, the car breaking down, the emergency, Niki and her asking for help, Holiday and his rescuing Wanda and Niki, taking them to the house, allowing them to move in? Holiday’s response, his religious background, the opening and seeing him playing and singing in church, the religious dimension of his life? Their dependence on Holiday, Wanda wanting some independence, hurting Holiday? Silas and his attitudes, Wanda and the separation?
9.Wanda, her character, relationship with Silas, the experience of drugs and violence, wanting to be a writer, her potential, her poetry? The drug dependence, the effect? Her love for Niki? Holiday rescuing them? With Holiday, the writing, going to church, the soup kitchen and helping out? The temptation to drugs with Silas, Holiday intervening? Her being aloof, Silas and leaving, the spiral down, the drugs, on the streets, the prostitution? Coming to the graduation at the back door? Stealing from her daughter? Her return, taking the bike that Holiday had bought? Niki seeing her? Her death? The funeral and the grave?
10.Niki, her age, maturity, getting Holiday to help, sharing with him, the stories, the discussions, her development, Wanda and Holiday taking her to school, the support of the school, growing up, the experience of her period, with the boy and Holiday severe with her, the breaking of the mirror? The graduation, reciting the poem? The dinner, the celebration, her questions about sexuality, love? With Silas? The walk? With Wanda, the bond with Holiday, the end?
11.Silas, the drug world, his violence, not using them himself, moving in, attitude towards Holiday, Wanda going away, Wanda leaving, his care for Niki, driving her, her wandering away, her being rescued? The issue of money and giving it to Holiday? The end and some possibility of support for Niki?
12.Holiday, Niki, the bike, the fight in the alley, the threats to Wanda, the crash and her death? His taking Niki to Paris?
13.The serious themes, their context, communicated by comedy and emotion?
