jazzman

Solea Pfeiffer and Joshua Boone are star-crossed lovers in the Jim Crow melodrama ‘A Jazzman’s Blues,’ written, directed and produced by Tyler Perry.

You can’t blame a person for wanting to be Tyler Perry. Who wouldn’t want his fame, his talent, his bank account?

Turns out, Tyler Perry himself. Apparently, he would rather be Nicholas Sparks.

At least, that seems to be the case judging by “A Jazzman’s Blues,” the latest unrelentingly saccharine melodrama from the New Orleans-born Perry.

Residing at the intersection of wistful love and heart-wrenching tragedy — with a wealth of contrived dialogue thrown in — the whole weepy exercise was written by Perry, directed by Perry and produced by Perry.

That being said, there’s no denying the influence it draws from Sparks, the bestselling novelist who specializes in moss-draped Southern melodramas that feel tailor-made to serve equally well as forgettable beach reads and even more forgettable Hallmark Channel movies.

Some may call it an homage. Others might all it a rip-off. Either way, the Georgia-shot “Jazzman’s Blues” plays like a cut-rate version of “The Notebook,” the novel that put Sparks on the map.

A stack of love letters...

That starts at the very beginning, with the story’s epistolary structure, which replaces the titular notebook with a stack of old love letters to jump-start its yarn of tragic tear-jerkery.

The major difference is that the main characters aren’t Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. Rather, they are poor, Black and living in the Jim Crow South.

On paper, that sounds like a splendid idea, a potential source of profound observations on race and racial identity in America.

In practice, it falls short.

In addition to his typical use of addiction and domestic abuse as plot catalysts, Perry’s story weaves in such hot-button issues as a long-ago lynching and a forbidden romance between the film’s main male character — the honey-voiced Bayou, played by Joshua Boone — and a light-skinned Black woman secretly living as a White woman (Solea Pfeiffer).

The problem is that, Perry — who, it must be said, has never been one for nuance — opts not to reach for the profound. Instead he pursues the obvious.

But there's the music

The result is a ham-handed, trope-filled film that feels underbaked and ungainly.

Every narrative twist is telegraphed, every dramatic choice is expected, every character is one-dimensional, and every scene of heightened emotion is built around tin-ear dialogue.

If there’s any compliment to be paid, it’s that Perry’s film sounds good, but not necessarily because of its score, which is as overwrought as the script. Rather it’s because of the contributions of New Orleans composer Terence Blanchard, who wrote the often-rollicking songs performed in the film. Set to choreography by Debbie Allen, those brief musical interludes are repeated highlights.

Perry’s film also looks pretty. Just like a movie based on a Sparks novel, it leans heavily on dreamy, midsummer shots of dust motes floating aloft on golden sunbeams. It boasts scenes set against moonlit Spanish moss. Sunrises and sunsets await at seemingly every turn.

But even a pretty misfire is a misfire, and ultimately that’s what “A Jazzman’s Blues” is.

Back to the drawer?

It’s interesting to note that, while it is the 23rd theatrical release Perry has directed and the 24th film produced from on a script he wrote, the screenplay for “Jazzman” was the first he ever completed, all the way back in 1995.

Back then it was shoved in a drawer, deemed not ready for prime time.

A decade later, after introducing the world to his “Madea” comedies, Perry dusted it off and flirted once more with producing it. Once again, it wasn’t ready.

Now, all these years later, to say nothing of all that box office success, Perry is in the enviable position of being able to tell whatever story he damn well pleases. This time, that film was “A Jazzman’s Blues.”

Whether it was ready or not.

Mike Scott can be reached at moviegoermike@gmail.com.