REVIEWED - IDLEWILD:  OUTKAST, that imaginative Georgian rap duo, have, perhaps inevitably, brought their expansive, restless sensibility to bear on a movie musical. The film appears to have been conceived with one eye on Moulin Rouge and another on the elongated, gyrating African-Americans adorning the cover of Marvin Gaye's 1976 LP I Want You.

That image, painted by Ernie Barnes, is evoked during a number of joyful musical numbers set in a nightclub - boozy, though this is the era of Prohibition - in the southern town that gives the film its title.

For all its failings, Idlewild, directed by a veteran of music videos, does a decent job of communicating the spirit of its chosen age. Featuring no white characters and no explicit allusions to racism, it acts as a persuasive counterblast to all those cinematic representations of 1930s America in which African-Americans were invisible, caricatured or patronised.

Yet, for all its smoky brown style and commendable intentions, Idlewild fails miserably as a film. In place of a plot we are offered a crudely bolted together amalgam of stock situations. André Benjamin and Antwan Patton, the men otherwise known as André 3000 and Big Boi, play two old pals whose lives have diverged only slightly as time has passed. The former is a musician with ambitions to leave this hick town. The latter has evolved into a poor husband and an only intermittently legitimate businessman.

André, as we have seen elsewhere, is a pretty decent actor. Big Boi, by contrast, shines nearly as dimly as did 50 Cent in Get Rich or Die Tryin'. There is a subplot concerning a chorus girl posing as a star and another involving attempt an by gangsters to take over Patton's club. No story serves to complement or forward any other.

Worst of all for a musical, the film-makers have utterly failed to solve the problem of how to integrate the songs with the action. Sometimes (as with Cabaret) they are performed on stage. Elsewhere (as in a pop video) they emerge from the soundtrack as a commentary on the characters' situation. Occasionally (as in a traditional show) the heroes, overcome with emotion or anxiety, abandon speech for song in mid-sentence.

It's perfectly acceptable to bend reality in such ventures, but, cautious of confusing your audience, you should make sure to consistently bend it in the same direction. Donald Clarke