Honeydripper

Written and directed by indie god John Sayles, there's a lot to like about Honeydripper, but Sayles's uncharacteristic penchant to lean on cliche and stock characters to prop up a barely-there plot halts any chance of loving it. Danny Glover plays Tyrone Purvis, the owner of The Honeydripper, an Alabama nightclub on the verge of bankruptcy. In need of something special to lure the crowds away from the rival club Touissant's, Tyrone takes a chance on employing the young drifter Sonny (Gary Clark Jnr.), who arrives in town with a new contraption - the electric guitar. Surrounding this, Sayles finds time to explore a love story (Sonny falls for Tyrone's daughter), Tyrone's problem with the local sheriff (Stacey Keach), who has an eye for his wife Delilah (Hamilton) and the grievances of cotton pickers in the fields. A decent first half-hour and a fun last half-hour is spoiled by an overlong second act that doesn't know what to do with itself except wait around for the denouement; Sayles's script editor, if there was one in this low-budget drama, should have had a word in his ear about what is absolutely necessary. Honeydripper attempts to hit all the right notes and, for the most part, it does; it's odd, then, to feel less than we should when those notes are hit. Saying that, the shots of a stunned crowd at hearing the first few licks of an electric guitar are spine-shivering stuff.