Annie

It’s not the worst musical of the year. That title still belongs to Peter Pan Live. Jamie Foxx actually tries much harder than Christopher Walken, and Quvenzhane Wallis is so much more adorable than Allison Williams.

In this remake fast forwarded to modern day, Wallis stars as Annie – a foster kid who always thinks the sun will come out tomorrow. She scampers around the streets of New York with a smile on her face and a bounce in her step, but ends up having her life saved by Will Stacks (Foxx) – a gruff, unfriendly business tycoon running for mayor of New York.

The video clip of him pulling Annie out of the street and away from an oncoming truck goes viral, which gets his scheming campaign team … well … scheming. The candidate’s poll numbers are up due to this candid act of heroism, and his dastardly campaign manager, Guy (Bobby Cannavale), suggests Stacks spend more time with Annie (and makes sure lots of photographers are around).

Annie is hip to the hustle, and suggests Stacks take her in on a more permanent basis, which just might work out for both of them. Will Stacks dump her after the campaign?

Will each one realize they have been looking for each other all along?

When casting actors to star in a musical, I would think it is very important to make sure they have wonderful singing voices. The casting director for Annie seems to disagree with me on that point.

Wallis is one of the most charming actresses in the business, but she can’t sing. I am willing to look past that, since she brings so much more to the proceedings, but what’s the deal with bringing in Cameron Diaz to play Miss Hannigan? Didn’t anyone ask her to audition or somehow prove she has some sort of musical ability?

If only the casting was the singular problem plaguing Annie.

Poor Foxx and Wallis are left dragging around this dead carcass of a movie for almost two hours, and they are so talented they almost make it work.

Director/co-writer Will Gluck fails to give Annie the right pace to keep your interest and excitement as major portions of the film drag on and on, especially the musical numbers, which need better choreography, action, plot relevancy and imagination. This is a musical where they could have cut the music and saved us all the time and effort.

Then, Gluck and co-writer Aline Brosh McKenna try to pepper the movie with all sorts of meta jokes about musicals, the original Annie and a few special surprise cameos, but none really add to the movie. Some of the jokes about the original Annie left me wishing I was watching that on DVD instead.

Plus, Diaz just seems to be all wrong for Miss Hannigan. For a kids’ movie, Gluck has Diaz acting much too scary and angry. It’s too real as she misses the comical element needed to relieve the tension. I don’t think it is all her fault. Much of it is the direction, and the rest is a bad casting decision.

Foxx and Wallis have some great chemistry together and the connection between the two makes the connection between Stacks and Annie feel more real than it might have been. It’s almost as if every scene without the two of them together is a waste of time that only extends the duration of the movie past the point of acceptability and tolerance.

Annie is rated PG for some mild language and rude humor.