The Fighting Temptations is about a Gospel music group, and the name simply means that good Christians must fight the temptations of life. Thus, the film is not about a music group known as The Temptations, though some might even say that The Fighting Temptations is better than The Temptations. Indeed, audiences will move their heads and bodies and even clap their hands during the film. The plot is somewhat uncomplicated, however. One day, the Sunday service at the Beulah Baptist Church of Montecarlo, Georgia, is in progress. Preteen Darrin Hill (played by Nigel Washington) sits outside with Lilly (played by Wanda William), an attractive girl of about the same age; Darrin declares that someday he would like to marry Lilly, but she prefers Michael Jackson as her future spouse. After the two are dragged into the service, they witness a spirited performance by the church choir. Afterward, as parishioners leave the church, nasty Paulina Pritchett (played by LaTanya Richardson) demands that Mary Ann (played by Faith Evans), the niece of Sally Walker (played by Ann Nesby) be booted from the position of choir leader because she works in a sinful nightclub, contrary to the church’s by-laws. Rev. Lewis (played by Wendell Pierce) is then forced to tell Sally to choose between choir membership and her line of work, and Sally responds by casting off her choir robe. Soon, she gets on a bus with the only member of her family, her nephew Darrin, to move to Chicago. Sally goes on to a successful musical career, whereas Darrin becomes a card shark and a con man at an early age. Fifteen years after leaving Montecarlo, Darrin (now played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is a junior executive at an advertising agency; when he presents his idea that a malt liquor division of a beer company will attract African American customers in droves, the beer company executive suggests that Darrin should play a more central role in the agency, so his boss promotes him to an executive position. However, Darrin is soon fired because he lied on his job application that he went to Andover and graduated from Yale. Darrin also has run up so many credit card debts that he is hounded by collection agents. After Darrin is fired, he exits from the building only to be presented with a summons. The paper insists that he must return to Montecarlo for the funeral of Aunt Sally, who has remembered him in her will; when the will is read, there is a catch to gain a monetary windfall, namely, that he must take her role as onetime director of the Beulah Baptist Church choir to the annual national competition of Gospel music groups in Columbus, Georgia. There is never any doubt that Darrin will do so, but how? He knows nothing about music. Most of the delightful humor and music in the film emerges as he recruits singers to the choir, which when he arrives consists of seven members who cannot carry a tune. Among those he prevails upon to join the choir are a grown-up Lilly (now played by Beyoncé Knowles) and three members of the local prison. Just as the choir is ready to compete, Paulina exposes Darrin’s sordid past as well as the fact that the beer executive relents and begs him to return to the advertising agency, so Darrin leaves in disgrace, and the new choir leader is the hated Paulina, who will surely lead the choir to defeat. Of course there will be a happy ending, not unlike Sweet Home Alabama (2002). Directed by Political Film Society awardwinner Jonathan Lynn, The Fighting Temptations is guaranteed to wow all sorts of audiences, bringing attention to Gospel music in the same manner that The Sting (1973) fêted ragtime and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) brought world attention to bluegrass music. But The Fighting Temptations presents a wider range of musical genres, including rap, R&B, and soul, thus celebrating the lively and rich heritage of music by African Americans. MH