Ranting Eva is a twenty-something whose ever observant eye hopes to share the daily trials and tribulations of the 21st century, through some downright opinionated rambling on different facets of pop culture.« Halloween: "A game of terror?" | Main | Never fear! Wonderbra is here! »
November 3, 2005
Trapped in the Closet ... with R. Kelly
This week, R. Kelly's urban soap opera "Trapped in the Closet - Chapters 1-12", hit stores. VH1 has decided to air this melodramatic saga today and yours truly has just sat through chapters 6-8 and must say it was delightfully horrible. It's hard for me to contain my mirth at the overly dramatized dilemma that is more tangled up than a bird's nest.
R. Kelly is Sylvester a two-timing husband cheating on his wife. When we first meet him, he has just woken up in another woman's home whose husband has just gotten home. Now Sylvester scurries into the closet but is foiled by his cell phone going off and inciting a jealous confrontation between spouses. As the drama continues, we soon realize that everyone is cheating on everyone and random characters become seriously interconnected. When Sylvester finally gets to his wife, Gwendolyn, (Chapter 5 or 6) he realizes she's been straying herself. She's been sleeping with the police officer who had pulled him in an earlier chapter!
The dialogue is half spoken word and half crooning. It's a bit grating were it not for the comic relief provided with some stellar lyrics like: "It was Rosy .... the nosy neighbor..." In addition, VH1 has commentary from each of the protagonists, giving insight to what the state of their mind was in each chapter.
No offense to the R. Kelly fans, but the man is off his rocker. This overwrought urban novela is well, overly ambitious. It's an interesting idea that had potential, but falls just short and is more camp than real.
Posted by eva on November 3, 2005 3:19 PM
