A great many of the insults involve G.G.'s plastic surgery, which Vi Rose implies is mostly responsible for the G.G. standing before us today. G.G. shouts back, "Plastic surgeons have to make a living!" We all know that Dolly Parton has had some work, and that she often jokes about it. Still, Vi Rose's dialogue seems over the top: too cruel, because it contains much truth. There is another problem. One look at G.G. and you suspect no waitress in a poverty-stricken town could afford work like that.
The two "kids," Olivia and Randy, develop a relationship that ticks off the time-honored cliches of all such movie romances, including the breakup and the reconciliation. The movie loads on another subplot involving Vi Rose's son, Walter (Dexter Darden), who has Asperger's syndrome and is articulate about it, complaining to his mom that he wishes he knew how to behave better socially and knows what people mean when they say things. Happily, he finds an appropriate way to express himself during the national finals, and fits snugly into the collective happy ending.
True gospel music can indeed be a joyful noise. Turning to the 95th Psalm, the writer of this film, Todd Graff, who also directed, seems to have read it this way: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock and roll of our salvation." The climactic scene at the national finals is so inappropriate, so unexpected in terms of what's gone before, that its purpose is not so much to win the competition as to supply the audience with a big production number starring Dolly and the Queen. The only thing miraculous about it is that a big orchestra materializes on the soundtrack. In trying so awkwardly to include a little something for everyone, "Joyful Noise" succeeds in finding a little something to disappoint everyone, no matter what they were expecting.
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