‘Annie’ is a hard knock, no fun adaptation

REVIEW

‘Annie’

Grade: D

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Quvenzhan Wallis, Cameron Diaz

Running time: 1:58

Rating: PG: For some mild language and rude humor

By LINDSEY BAHR

AP Film Writer

The best that can be said of this new version “Annie” is that Will Gluck and company have certainly made the story, and most of the songs, their own. But, aside from originality points, this new “Annie” is a charmless and grossly materialistic bore, especially for now-adults of a certain age who still hold the ’82 director John Huston version in high regard.

“Annie” has always been a strange beast, with its grand New Deal politics juxtaposed with the tale of a rich savoir taking in a plucky orphan. Here, Annie (Quvenzhani Wallis) is a foster kid living with a handful of pre-teen girls under the lazy supervision of Hannigan (Cameron Diaz) in her Harlem apartment.

Diaz talk-yells at the girls with such an unnatural shrill that it fails at being cruel, comedic, or drunken. This is no Carol Burnett slapstick.

But nothing actually seems that bad for Annie. She and her foster friends are all clothed and fed and attending clean, friendly schools. They even seem to mostly like Hannigan except when she makes them clean. A hard knock life, indeed.

This is not the dire, hopeless situation of a blighted Depression-era orphanage. Still, Annie wants out and is determined to find the parents she believes exist. Fine, fair.

On one of her many solo jaunts, she runs into billionaire Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx), an affectless, Bloombergian cellphone titan in the midst of a mayoral campaign. In Annie, his team (Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale) sees an opportunity to make the disconnected mogul more relatable to the common voter. All they need is a few press-friendly moments with the cute foster kid from the wrong side of the tracks.

Gluck, who made the delightful, self-aware teen comedy “Easy A,” proves inept at staging and filming the movie’s musical numbers.

Wallis, who displayed preternatural talent and strength at the tender age of five in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” has been directed to play 11-year-old Annie as a self-assured brat. She is unfazed by authority figures and is the type of kid who will just take the stage at a swanky charity event and burst into song.

She and Foxx share a few sweet moments, but their connection mostly comes across as superficial — as does nearly everything in this movie.

This “Annie” was supposed to be for a new generation. In the harsh light of 2014, it’s never looked so dated.