The Prom (2020)

By: Mike Ward on Tuesday, December 22

PG-13 Running Time: 132 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • The Prom features a star-studded cast and a larger-than-life visual presentation people will be engaged with.

  • To be fair, The Prom is definitely an escape-style movie.

  • Catchy songs, great choreography and a breakout performance from Jo Ellen Pellman is hard to pass by.

NO

  • Admittedly, audiences like this more than critics do, but beyond the surface this movie doesn’t really address the realities of the topics they are exploring.

  • I would bet that most of you won’t be able to remember one song performed in the movie as soon as it comes to a close.

  • Did anyone stop and ask why Emma and Alyssa’s story isn’t the A-story, but it is the celebrities’ self-importance which takes center stage?


OUR REVIEW

Full of glitz, glamour, costumes, catchy songs, a stellar cast, and a breakthrough performance by Jo Ellen Pellman, Ryan Murphy’s cinematic adaptation of The Prom feels like it should be a surefire win. Adapted from the Broadway-nominated musical, Murphy’s film takes a timely topic - discrimination of the LGBTQ community - and turns it into a confetti-gun explosion of a movie experience.

Much like what happens after the confetti blast is uncorked, The Prom remains rather pretty, kind of fun, but also forms into a bit of a mess the longer you look at it, requiring a whole lot of clean up.

Broadway stars Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Corden) have just opened and closed their latest production, Eleanor: The Eleanor Roosevelt Musical, after one performance. The reviews are so savage, the reality hits that no one will buy tickets and the show should close immediately. Devastated, they stumble upon bartender and struggling actor Trent (Andrew Rannels), who commiserates with them. Additionally, Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman), 20-years a cast member in the chorus of Chicago, finds the trio drowning in their sorrows and shares she was passed over again for the co-leading role of Roxie Hart.  

Scouring social media, they learn of a news story breaking out of the small town of Edgewater, Indiana. A local teen, Emma (Pellman), is barred from bringing her girlfriend to the school prom. When there is pushback and the story reaches national news, her high school cancels prom altogether, a decision the school’s principal (Keegan-Michael Key) personally disagrees with. Believing they have a cause to fight for and seeing a chance and opportunity to restore their celebrity status and put Eleanor behind them, the four actors, and publicist Sheldon (Kevin Chamberlain), embark to Edgewater to take up the fight for Emma to be able to attend her prom.

Adapted from stage to screen by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, two of the writers of the book of the musical, The Prom gives you catchy songs, lots of energy, and heightened excitement from all involved. The film never lacks enthusiasm and has very little downtime, balancing those topical issues of LGBTQ inclusion and acceptance with vain and narcissistic characters who struggle to realize the world is bigger than their latest show, song, success, failure, or material luxury.

An easy idea but an intriguing premise, The Prom likely works better on stage than on film.

What Murphy extracts from the book and screenplay makes The Prom a rather shallow story, living in a world where simple resolutions are merely bandages to complex and complicated problems. Is The Prom about the four actors resuscitating their careers, public personas, while learning to be better people? Or…is it about addressing the very cruel way in which LGBTQ youth still often face discrimination and hatred among their peers for simply trying to find their voice and develop the courage to live out, proud, and authentic as to who they are?

Before you hit back with a “Why Not Both?” response, The Prom has no real idea where to place its focus. Emma’s journey, which involves the dating of her girlfriend Alyssa (Ariana Debose) in secret for over a year-and-a-half, is tied to jointly going public and coming out together with the girl she loves. Alyssa’s mother, Mrs. Greene (Kerry Washington), is the PTA President who leads the charge to shutter her daughter’s prom because of Emma, clueless as to what her decisions may mean for her immediate family.

And Emma has suffered. Though played with eternal optimism by Pellman, which sends the right message through much of what we endure here, elements of her story are zipped past with alarming flippancy.

We learn that when Emma came out to her parents, she was essentially disowned and sent to live with her loving grandmother (Mary Kay Place). The homophobia of her school and community is wounding and significant. The PTA advocating for her discrimination, and a milquetoast principal who is really mad, but claims to have his hands tied, is not so easily forgotten – no matter how this story tries to wrap things up in a bright and robust bow. Does Emma really want to become the face of all gay kids in the state of Indiana, and potentially the nation when she can’t even exist in public with her girlfriend?

Even if the film undercuts hard and painful truths affecting the very community it aims to embrace, something I would never expect from an inclusive storyteller like Murphy, not thinking too deeply about The Prom allows viewers to enjoy the songs, story, and comedic flourishes all that much more.

Undeniably, this dance lacks depth and soul, the very real issues it tosses around are never dealt with in any meaningful way. The Prom feels like it is simply placating audiences who want to believe that they are open and affirming to gay kids and their struggles, but seldom have the courage to speak up for them. I imagine this could be, in part, why The Prom lost money on Broadway and went home empty-handed at the Tony Awards.

The intentions may be good, bringing light to Emma’s plight sure feels noble, but adrift for much of its 132 minutes, The Prom minimizes so much, it never truly finds a danceable rhythm.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key, Andrew Rannells, Ariana DeBose, Jo Ellen Pellman, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Chamberlain, Mary Kay Place, Logan Riley, Sofia Deler, Nico Grretham, Nathaniel J. Potvin, Sam Pillow.

Director: Ryan Murphy
Written by: Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin (screenplay);
Adapted from the musical book “The Prom” by Chad Beguelin, Bob Martin, Matthew Sklar
Based on an original concept by Jack Viertel
Release Date: December 4, 2020 (theaters); December 11, 2020 (Netflix)
Netflix