What's Love Got to Do with It

Brian Gibson's What's Love Got to Do with It opens with a young Anna Mae Bullock getting kicked out of choir practice for jazzing up the gospel. Years later, an older Anna Mae (Angela Bassett) gets a proper chance to perform for Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne) -- an opportunity that has its many ups and downs.

Admittedly, What's Love Got to Do with It isn't much different from other music biopics (or any biopics, really), in that the actual facts get fudged for dramatic license's sake. (Indeed, both Tina and Ike voiced their displeasure over that.) That said, even with that in mind, Kate Lanier's script is unflinching at times.

There's no doubt that the Turners' marriage was an ugly one at the worst of times but What's Love Got to Do with It makes it absolutely brutal. (Lanier actually omitted most of the brutality Tina mentioned in her autobiography.) The scenes of domestic abuse between them are very hard to watch, especially if you've been in that situation. Certainly not for the faint of heart.

And there's no denying that What's Love Got to Do with It is Bassett's show. Learning to walk and talk like Tina (the singing was lip-synced), she's as electric as the woman she's portraying. It's little wonder how Bassett got an Oscar nomination for her work.

What's Love Got to Do with It -- as stated earlier -- follows the standard biopic format but it's Bassett and Fishburne who keep it afloat. Tina (who passed away in 2023) later said that she didn't like how the film depicted her as a victim. It's true in some scenes but that's far from the actual case. Tina Turner wasn't a victim -- she was a survivor.

My Rating: ****