The Fighting Temptations

About The Fighting Temptations

The Fighting Temptations is a 2003 comedy film produced by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and singer Beyoncé Knowles as they attempt to revive a town's choir traditions in a modern society.

The film opens with Ann Nesby (as Aunt Sally) performing a song and we see young Darrin about 9 or 10 sitting with his friend Lilly who is about 4. The time is 1980. Despite their age difference, Darrin has a crush on Lilly. He asks her to be his girlfriend and she replies "Sorry, I Wanna Marry Michael Jackson". Darrin's mom, MaryAnn (Faith Evans) is a singer in the choir who is disliked by church treasurer Paulina Pritchett. After church, Paulina exposes MaryAnn's dirty laundry about being a sultry singer and MaryAnn is discouraged and leaves the church, the choir and the town. About 23 years later, Darrin (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is 35, working as a ad-executive in New York. His trusty assitant, Rosa, keeps him intact and protected. Later on, Darrin attends a meeting with important clients and wins their respect and they would like to sign him to their project. Unfortunately, his lies and deception catches up with him and he is promptly fired. As he leaves the building, a annoying private investigator hunts him down and informs him that his Aunt Sally has died. Distraught, he takes a overnight train and he daydreamed about his childhood with mother before her untimely death. He is saddened and weaps at her obituary photo and goes to sleep. The next day, he is back in Montecarlo, Georgia where he meets his new loyal friend, wanna-be player Lucious (Mike Epps). Lucious is overly obsessed with female "booty". On the way to the funeral, the two men ride pass Lilly (Beyonce Knowles). Darrin immediately falls in love. On the radio we hear Miles the DJ (comedian Steve Harvey) reporting the daily news and welcoming Darrin home. At the funeral, we see Paulina comes in faking to mourn for Sally, being "slain in the spirit". Darrin spots Lilly and he smiles.Darrin soon learns that he must revive the local choir and lead them into the "Gospel Explosion". Darrin recruits enough singers and all he needs now is Lilly. Later on that night, Darrin and Lucious attend a club where Lilly works and she sings "Fever". Afterwards, Darrin tries to woo Lilly but she immediately rejects him with an insult. Darrin recruits the help of Miles the DJ and Darrin hosts auditions and everyone who auditions is terrible. Day after day, Miles would make a silly announcement about the auditions. Darrin goes about the town hanging fliers for the auditions. He sees that Lilly has a son and that is the reason why is banned from the local church, which he believes is a cruel reason to shun someone. Eventually, Lilly decides to join his choir "for Sally" she says. Darrin convinces the other choir members that she is welcome to the choir. Due to her beautiful voice, everyone is won over and she also gives Darrin her respect. One night as they clean out Sally's house, looking at old letters, Darrin reads a certain letter that makes him upset (sadness) and Lilly consoles him with a kiss on the lips. They finally fall for one another and as they tried to continue with their kiss, Lilly notices a mean-looking photo of Sally and she gets uncomfortable and they leave. Darrin takes her home and she gives him a more passionate kiss as her way of saying goodnight. At the same time, Paulina answers a phone call on Darrin's phone and gets all his secrets and the next day he is exposed. Lilly's heart is broken by his lies and no longer wants to be with him. He leaves Georgia and returns to New York. When he got back, he got his job back with a promotion, a new condo and a big screen TV but he felt like something was wrong. He missed the choir and he was in love with Lilly and he wanted to be with her again. Darrin decides to quit his job and move back to Georgia. When he gets back, Lilly is depressed and does not want to see him. He apologizes, convinces her to return to the choir and along with Lucious and the Reverend (Wendell Pierce) they go to stop Paulina from taking over the choir. The five (including Lilly's son) catches up with the choir and Paulina. Darrin apologizes for his wrong doing. Darrin and the choir votes Paulina out of the choir and she storms off. The title of the movie comes into play when Darrin informs Lilly that the choir's name is The Fighting Temptations because earlier in the movie, she mentions that fighting temptation can make you stronger. They perform their song and it becomes a major hit with the audience and they receive a standing ovation. The choir wins the competition and Paulina was defeated. Following their success, Darrin informed the audience and the choir if Lilly will marry him, he will have kept a promise that he had made to his mother when he was a boy. She replies "yes" and they shared a romantic hug and they cheer along with the choir as they hold up their trophy. About eighteen months later, we see the church updated and repaired and that Darrin and Lilly have got married and are sitting in the front row with their happy family: which includes their new baby. Also, Paulina has rejoined the choir, having asummingly decided to drop her old hypocritical way. The movie ends with the choir performing "Time To Come Home". During the end credits, the choir members dance to the music (with the exception of Lilly) and we see Lucious bothering Darrin and Lilly's baby saying "Ya know I'm your daddy right?" but Lilly's grandfather gives him a cold stare and Lucious backs off.

The movie was a instant moderate success, with a worldwide gross of US$32,445,215. Critics panned Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance and thought Knowles' performance was underacted. Despite the both positive and negative reviews the film opened at number three.