Film & TV

DVD Review: Nina

By Rod Lewis

Posted on September 24, 2016

A biopic on the later years of legendary pianist and singer, Nina Simone, focusing on her relationship with her manager and former nurse, Clifton Henderson.

There’s an elephant in the room when it comes to Cynthia Mort’s biopic of legendary singer/pianist Nina Simone and that’s the casting of American actress Zoë Saldana to play the title role. Saldana is of Pueto Rican decent and, as a lightly-toned black woman, she had to darken her skin considerably to play the iconic singer.

The issues of racism and “blackface” have detracted from an otherwise satisfying performance but carry extra weight given Simone’s outspoken stance on racism in America during the age of segregation.

Controversial casting aside, Mort has written and directs a very average story that fails to focus on many of the things that mattered to Simone. Set in the later part of her life, interspersed with segments of an interview with a French journalist and occasional flashbacks, Nina hones in on Simone’s relationship with her former nurse and eventual manager, Clifton Henderson (David Oyelowo). The action jumps from moment to moment, creating a disjointed story that never really lets one get attached to Simone’s life.

During her extensive 48-year career, Nina Simone recorded 47 albums and over 400 songs. Her live performances reached in the thousands. She’s been nominated 15 times for a Grammy Award, and is inducted in their Hall of Fame. Many of her songs carried political or social messages, or were a response to major events like the death of American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

This is all downplayed in Mort’s script, which focuses more on Simone’s crush on Henderson, and her medical and emotional troubles that saw her temporarily fall out of grace in the mid-1990s.

That said, any film about such an iconic singer needs music and Zoë Saldana sings beautifully, preventing the need for her to lip sync the words. There’s a raft of Simone’s ballads on offer, from Feeling Good and I Put a Spell on You though to popular but lesser known songs like Black is the Color of my True Love’s Hair and Brown Baby.

Nina is an enjoyable film but not a good biopic. There are too many missed opportunities to get to know the much-loved artist who still commands attention today, thirteen yeas after her death. Those hoping for something more detailed will be very disappointed but as a simple film, well acted and with good music, Nina is 90 minutes well spent.

Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet

Rating out of 10: 7

Nina will be released on DVD and Digital from 28 September 2016.