Annie: A Metaphor for the Times

I wanted to see Selma, but Chloe wasn't having it so this Friday we went to see Annie.  My mother took me to see Annie on Broadway when I was a kid so it was nice to be able to do something similar with Chloe.  It's interesting to look at the controversy surrounding the Annie clothing line in Target because when I first saw Annie, Ms. Hannigan was played by Nell Carter who was upset that a white actress appeared in the television commercials for the play.

Photo: playbillvault.com

Nevertheless, Chloe and I are both big fans of the original movie, so we headed to the Magic Johnson Theater, ordered our chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks, and took our seats in the dark theater.

My plan was for us to wear matching red dresses, but Chloe wasn't having that either!

I was prepared not to like the remake, despite the black additions to the cast.  I'm not sure why, but I think that it had something to do with with the horrible wig that they put on Quvenzhané Wallis.  Bad wigs really bother me; especially on children.  This one was too far forward on her forehead, and the hairline was not at all natural.  It distracted from the expressiveness of her face. (And yes, I just wrote an entire paragraph about a wig.  If you know me, it makes sense).

Citibike product placement, when Citbike doesn't exist in Harlem

As I sat there alternately fawning over Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and coming up with a list of critiques in my head (Jamie Foxx phoning in his performance, Cameron Diaz being miscast as Miss Hannigan, the awkward dance numbers) I looked over at Chloe and she was grinning from ear to ear.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje played Nash, a Punjab for the 21st century

In the original Annie, the story was a metaphor for Depression Age America.  In 1933, the year that the play was set, America was looking for a Daddy Warbucks to set the country on the right path.  The remake makes this clear in the first scene when Annie does a presentation on FDR's New Deal in her classroom.

In the new version, Annie's story is a metaphor for the fatherlessness that many children face today (motherhood has always been incidental in Annie).   As the movie played, I could see Chloe looking wistfully at Mr. Stacks; at one point she even said  aloud "it's not fair."   I relaxed and tried to see the film through her eyes, and I realized that it was enjoyable to her because it is a fantasy.  Annie tells girls that if  they are witty and cute enough, they will be able to get the attention of a father figure who will buy them pretty red dresses and take them to fancy places.  What girl doesn't want to be rescued from invisibility;  provided for and protected?

What Annie offers girls looking for attention from their fathers is hope.  If they aren't getting what they need now, there is always potential for something wonderful to happen.   Quvenzhané Wallis is a nuanced, magnetic actress, and there is a moment when you see her moving from disappointment to hope and you suddenly understand the meaning of "Tomorrow, Tomorrow."