I never expected to like The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat. But as I treat every work assignment with the same intensity, I started watching the movie with all my attention. To my surprise, the first hour passed by like a soothing breeze. It wasn’t my thing for sure, but I found myself digging the vibe of it. The plot was moving at a brisk pace, the drama was palpable, and the acting was fine enough to hold you. But then it started losing steam. By the time the final act kicked in, everything went haywire, and I couldn’t wait for it to end. It’s baffling how on earth director Tina Mabry lost the plot like that, especially after such a solid start. There’s not much to explain about The Supremes, but we’re still going to analyze Mabry’s film adaptation of the 2013 novel of the same name by Edward Kelsey Moore (no comment on that, as I haven’t read it).
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens in the Movie?
In what I consider to be an old-school approach (nothing wrong with it though), we find an ailing Odette sitting under a tree, starting to narrate the story. Born on a Sycamore tree, Odette has always been fearless. Clarice, on the other hand, had an overbearing mother who pretty much made her life hell. Odette and Clarice were best friends, but had Odette’s mother not forcefully sent them to the funeral of Barbara Jean’s mother, the trio would have remained incomplete. Barbara Jean was an oddball with no friends. She was born to an alcoholic mother, and her father could be any one of the four men who didn’t want to take responsibility. Her stepfather was an abusive drunkard. But her life changed when she met Odette and Clarice, who took her out of the abusive household and found her a place at Big Earl’s. He was a kind man who ran the restaurant (named after the man himself) Odette and Clarice frequented. When Earl saw Barbara Jean for the first time, he started calling the trio “Supreme.” At Earl’s, Barbara Jean also met Richmond and James, who would become Clarice and Odette’s future husbands, for the first time. While James was a timid boy too shy to even talk about his feelings for the feisty Odette, Richmond was a hotshot footballer with a charming personality. Days went by, and the friendship between the trio became stronger. Barbara Jean found a potential suitor in Lester, an older man with a big heart and shiny car. But there was one other man who was pining for her: Ray, aka Chick, a white man working at an all-black establishment, i.e., Earl’s.
What Happened Between Ray and Barbara Jean?
Barbara Jean and Ray fell in love probably the first time they saw each other. He was abused by his racist elder brother Desmond, who used to heckle the black community for fun. Like Barbara Jean, Ray also found shelter at Earl’s. Their love blossomed, and soon Barbara Jean was pregnant. As it happened, Odette had to miss her nursing exam for Barbara Jean. Meanwhile, Clarice had also decided to give up on her career as a pianist to have a family with Richmond, which she described as the best music she would ever play. Sadly for her, Richmond was always a red flag with a tendency toward infidelity, which everyone saw, but Clarice was so in love with him that she chose to be in denial.
Back to Barbara Jean and Ray, they didn’t find their happy ending either. The initial plan was to get away, but after getting attacked by Desmond, Barbara Jean realized that they lived in a world where an interracial couple could never find peace. She didn’t want to raise a child under such circumstances. So she broke up with Ray without telling him about the pregnancy. Lester turned out to be the man for Barbara Jean, who was still awaiting her with open arms, no matter what her situation was. Barbara Jean found peace with Lester and their son, Adam, until the boy was murdered by Desmond (his own uncle, who didn’t know). A completely shattered Barbara Jean had no other refuge to seek but alcohol, thus embarking on a dark path. She also sought out Ray, as she thought he ought to know about the existence of their son and the cruelest possible fate handed to him. Barbara Jean made sure Ray took care of Desmond, although much later in the movie we get to know that Ray actually didn’t kill Desmond (it was someone else).
What Happens to Odette and Clarice?
The Supremes keeps shifting between past (late sixties) and present (late nineties), but I have obviously taken the chronological route here. In the present, big Earl dies, leaving his son little Earl (who runs the restaurant now) and second wife Minnie (an unnecessary comic relief character that does more harm than good to the narrative) behind. At his funeral, Lester unexpectedly dies while trying to fix a flickering light. That obviously takes a toll on Barbara Jean, whose alcoholism turns expectedly worse. Odette is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a fact that she hides from her police officer husband James and her two best friends. Richmond cheats on Clarice with the much younger Cherokee (of course, he lies to the girl by telling her his marriage is over), resulting in Clarice (finally) leaving him. Ray, now an ornithologist, returns to town and stumbles into Odette.
Does Odette Die?
The major issue with The Supremes’ ending is the constant change of tone. It almost feels like the movie is undecided about the fate of its characters. It gets to the point where you know that Odette’s death is only a matter of time, with her condition significantly deteriorating (and you’ve already seen the first scene). There’s a huge fight scene between the three best friends where Odette basically ends up ranting about how Clarice and Barbara Jean have negatively affected her life. Even though Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Uzo Aduba, and Sana Latham have put their hearts into this scene, it feels way too animated. Right after this, Odette ends up in the hospital. It doesn’t make much sense that she would request Richmond out of all people to take her to the sycamore tree, where she would die like she’d always wanted to, although there’s an explanation. Well, Richmond does take her to the tree, but it’s maple and not Sycamore. More importantly, Odette pulls through and ends up living.
The Supremes ends with the trio, all glowing and confident, at Earl’s. Ray has returned to Barbara Jean’s life while Richmond is trying to win Clarice back. But Clarice has made up her mind to go to New York and finally pursue her dreams. As far as Odette, she has beaten death and is now looking forward to making more memories—with her friends. I can’t complain about the ending, but I wish the movie had taken a different road getting here.
