Babymother

Single mum Anita (Smith) is a peacock - bright and loud. She needs a nice, dun-coloured mate, but instead has Don Byron (Johnson), a reggae star who loves the limelight and panics when singing hopeful 'Nita has a chance to steal it. There's also her preachy sister Rose (Llewellyn), a serious lack of money and a sexist music industry to contend with. In crafting this kitchen sink reggae musical, writer/director Henriques has hardly made life easy for himself. While brimming with life, 'Nita is also self-obsessed, aggressive, posturing and immature. And though she looks after her children, you never feel they have an emotional connection. Clearly you need time to care for such a creature, but the numerous, often tedious musical numbers keep getting in the way. As a vocalist, however, Smith proves convincing and, in two excellent closing numbers, the 'message' that has been clumsily milling around finally assembles itself and hits home.