Or, Cat People: "Cats" a strange, distracting experience with a certain acid-tripping charm

Cats (2019)

110 min.
Screened on December 17, 2019 at UA Riverview Plaza

Release Date: December 20, 2019 (Wide)

It is telling that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular 1982-2000 megamusical “Cats” on the West End and Broadway is just now taking the leap to the big screen in 2019. Based on T.S. Eliot’s 1939 collection of poems, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” this star-studded fever dream was always going to be strange and surreal, but as an actual film directed by Tom Hooper (2015’s “The Danish Girl”), who already helmed a movie musical with 2012’s “Les Misérables,” it’s proof that not all sung-through stage shows can successfully translate to the screen with the same kind of theatrical magic. Thought to be unfilmable and a daunting undertaking, “Cats” does now, in fact, exist, and it is an ambitiously go-for-broke, occasionally jubilant and whimsical wackadoo-extravaganza with a certain acid-tripping charm.

How do you adapt a live musical about anthropomorphic cats into a live-action/motion-capture motion picture event? Director Tom Hooper doesn’t seem to always know, either, but he sure as heck tries by putting on a spectacle with an ensemble of professional dancers and game, talented star performers who don’t look the least bit embarrassed. One must take most of what happens in “Cats” as read because no matter how many times “jellicle” is spoken, er, sung, the meaning of a “jellicle cat” is never quite clear. While there’s no hard-hitting narrative to speak of, a lot of cats get their introductions. A new stray, Victoria (Francesca Hayward), finds herself in an alleyway, surrounded by the Jellicle tribe, and not all of them are welcoming her with open paws at first. As she comes to learn, the Jellicles hold a ball once a year and then Old Deuteuronomy (Judi Dench) chooses one deserving cat to begin a new life after being sent up into a chandelier hot air balloon to the “Heavyside Layer” and be reborn.

Literalizing human-faced cats with not-fully-rendered “digital fur technology” on screen never quite works as it did onstage in a more abstract form. As soon as the first number, “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats,” begins, there is a transportive magic initially that soon evaporates as the film becomes distracting with too many confounding creative choices, least of all being Hooper and cinematographer Christopher Ross ill-advised in some of their camera placement. The script, co-written by director Hooper and Lee Hall (2019’s “Rocketman”), tries to wedge stakes into a story where there really aren’t any by making criminal cat Macavity (Idris Elba) a full-on villain who whisks felines away in a magical puff of smoke to a pirate ship (!) or something. The singing and dance choreography are wonderful, and the production design of the 1920s, London streets and oversized sets can be wondrous. Even a fantastical sequence involving a tap-dancing Skimbleshanks (Steven McRae) that segues onto a railroad track is a mid-film dazzler, but like most of the musical numbers, it then becomes repetitive. Finally, as far as context is concerned, there’s little to latch onto emotionally.

Making her film debut, principal ballet dancer Francesca Hayward is spectacular when it comes to showcasing her graceful bread and butter, and she brings a lovely, wide-eyed sweetness, if nothing else, to non-feline audience surrogate Victoria. Jason Derulo and Taylor Swift, respectively playing the funky Rum Tum Tugger and the sexy, catnip-pouring Bombalurina, do command the screen like the musical performers they are. Veterans Ian McKellen and Judi Dench bring a lick of class to their parts as Gus and Old Deuteuronomy, while Idris Elba slinks around as bad cat Macavity and takes off his trench coat at one point to reveal his Ken Doll-smooth anatomy. Rebel Wilson fares far less well, fully committing to her lumbering comic bits (mostly pratfalls and, in her introduction, a strange spread eagle) but coming off more obnoxious than endearing as Jennyanydots. If there is one performer who could inject a soulfulness and genuine feeling into the film, it would be Jennifer Hudson as the mangy, shunned Grizabella. She does give the inherently moving “Memory” her all by belting out the mournful ballad twice to the nosebleed seats, but despite her tears and snot bubbles, the would-be showstopper does not hold the emotional weight that it should or induce the expected chills.

Sure, the film is “Cats,” in which cat-like humans (or is it human-like cats?) sing and dance in a competition to die, but director Tom Hooper seems to have proven that directing a workable all-feline musical is like finding a unicorn. Destined for some sort of midnight-movie cult status, “Cats” might be the most fascinating, see-it-to-believe-it curiosity of 2019; when it ends, it feels like a bizarre dream. The uninitiated will hate it and immediately pull out awful cat puns. Fans of the show and just Broadway in general might give it a free pass. Those in the middle might find it to be a “what the Jellicle?” experience, but because it is so flawed and downright weird, that might be part of its charm. Is it "good," or is it "bad"? Can it only be enjoyed ironically? What is happening? Only time will tell where "Cats" ends up in the pantheon of movie musicals.

Grade: C