I Am Woman tells the story of singer Helen Reddy, who wrote and sang the song "I Am Woman" which became the anthem for the women's movement in the 1970s.
After the huge success of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Elton John's Rocketman, it's quite safe to say that musical biopics are back in fashion. In fact, 2020 has seen a plethora of biopics released or announced; from Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, and Elvis Presley, to Celine Dion, Boy George, the Bee Gees, and Dusty Springfield. What has appeared ready for release with little commotion has been Helen Reddy's biopic, I Am Woman.
One would expect an aggressively feminine story, if you were to look at the trailer, with this Australian woman trying to make it big in a male-dominated industry, being held back or abandoned by every man that she interacts with until she finally gains fame by penning a song that became the unofficial anthem of the second-wave of feminism and the equal rights campaign. It feels like a true underdog story that will have you cheering for Helen as she overcomes the overt sexism that had prevented her from getting a chance at turning music into a career.
I Am Woman fails to roar, however, instead, coming in with a bowed head and a whimper. Ultimately, Unjoo Moon's direction is somewhat inconsistent with the moral of the story, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey's turn as Helen Reddy lacks any kind of spark. For a woman who has been spurned by a past lover and mistrusts males, her next choice in a partner is exasperating and is so overdramatically acted by Evan Peters (from the X-Men and American Horror Story franchises). So much so, that it wouldn't be more obvious if he had tattooed "damaged" or "bad decision" on his forehead.
It affects how you consider Reddy's character and sense of judgement. There is a cringe-worthy level of misogyny and chauvinism that would have had a greater impact if it had been handled with more subtlety.
Reddy's best friend, Lilian Roxon, has a subplot that feels far more exciting than our main arc in I Am Woman; a main arc which manages to move at such a slow pace that you would almost think that screenplay writer Emma Jensen had avoided the usual generic musical biopic formula. But alas, it's the exact same formula, only much, much slower. It hits similar points to other biopics, but it focuses on the smaller interactions and skips over the more interesting moments.
But the aspect that really lets the film down is Tilda Cobham-Hervey's portrayal. Yes, she is a stunning woman, and she does well miming to Chelsea Cullen's Helen Reddy impersonation, but as a character that supposedly gave a voice to feminists across America, her character is passive and timid, with a nice smile, but a flat range of emotions.
The film is begging to make war with men, to bring out the frustration and anger of being held back, and dictated to, and yet, all the audience is shown, are a series of events that transition into a full song performance. There are no direct reactions to any events where Reddy's character is active. Everything she does is either directly or indirectly attributable to the men of the film. Reddy is simply along for the ride.
With such a timid and passive main character, it makes it harder to empathize and connect with who she is as a person, and the stakes are never fully developed, so the rise and fall lack the impact that they should have had. Perhaps this is simply the male way of thinking, and the character of Helen Reddy is something that many people will be able to identify with. This will no doubt receive a majority of good reviews because it talks about the effects and dynamics of sexism, but in the eyes of this reviewer, a poor representation is worse for the cause.
Women's rights need to be at the forefront at the moment as they are under threat internationally, and this film arrives at the perfect time to bring everyone together, but I Am Woman still feels like a small-scale biopic. There are no real stakes, the heights of fame don't feel real, and the fall from grace was predicted from the first moment that we saw sleazy Peters on screen.
If you already enjoy Helen Reddy's music, this will be perfectly fine. If you were brought up with this song, you'll certainly be singing and cheering along. If you are not familiar with Reddy's discography, I Am Woman is not the film that will make a Helen Reddy fan out of you. Full song performances slow the pacing of the film substantially and don't leave room for any real development of Helen Reddy's character. Her passivity means this is not a film about Helen Reddy. This is the story of the people around Reddy; her best friend and husband, Lilian Roxon and Jeff Wald, respectively
Dion Beebe's cinematography was competent and Rafael May's musical compositions were enjoyable, but there was nothing that made I Am Woman memorable, and that is the biggest disappointment of all.
I Am Woman is in cinemas from November 5, 2020
Originally posted to: https://djin.nz/Kr8720