Why Do Fools Fall in Love

This is a movie that should have been better. Why Do Fools Fall in Love boasts four attractive and able actors in Berry, Tate, Fox, and Roshon, but they often have no choice but to sink to the level of a paint-by-the-numbers biopic script that any celebrity on the downswing could be plugged into. The story never addresses, nor even seems to think about, Lymon's complete lack of self-awareness as he strives for comebacks and repeatedly acts irresponsibly. The cliché of his plight as a fallen star is sadly predictable, portrayed with far more emotional resonance in too many other, better, biographical movies -- the four A Star is Born versions as well as bios of Ray Charles, Jim Morrison, Billie Holiday, Johnny Cash, and Charlie Parker, to name just a few.

The movie spends no time whatever showing why Lymon turned to drugs, nor does it clarify how he quit during the times he surprisingly seems to be clean. There's some suggestion that Frankie was a bit too cocky for his own good, but that's not explored. There's a suggestion that he might have partied too hard and that's why he lost his career, but that's not explored, either. There's also a suggestion that he played all the women in his life, deliberately committing bigamy, but that too is left unexplored. Audiences can delight in one never-disappointing performer -- in a category that includes no one else –- Lymon's friend, the iconic R&B star Little Richard playing himself.