Zoe Saldana blacks up to play the difficult, volatile and fiery Nina Simone. Nina took no prisoners and there are people still alive who have the shrapnel wounds to prove it.

This film never gets a handle on its subject, it really is all over the place. The story is set up from the point of view of Clifton Henderson (David Oyelowo) the psychiatric nurse who becomes her assistant and later her manager.

Henderson has a difficult task caring for a diva with mental health issues, money problems, a bad reputation and a voice that is losing its edge. Promoters do not make money from her, clubs do not want to book her and audiences refuse to stay silent when she sings.

Director Cynthia Mort had her work cut out to make Nina a sympathetic figure despite her support for the civil rights movement. Nina did not want sympathy when she was alive.

Nina would sometimes go on stage and wind up the audience by not singing her greatest hits. Apparently Mort did not have the final cut to this film but what we have is a disappointing bio-pic.

So, I'll try to not include the controversy I heard about Star Trek's Zoe Saldana, playing the Infamous Nina Simone, although that's what made me interested in buying the ticket.

Overall, Saldana's performance was just OK. It's not the worse thing I've ever seen, it's not the best performance I've ever seen. It's not a milestone in her acting career, unlike her co-star David Oyelowo's magnificent turn as Doctor Martian Luther King Jr. in the movie, Selma. Mike Epps made an interesting cameo as Richard Pryor in the movie which left me something more than Saldana as Simone.

Nina is a focus on the last eight or so years of Simone's life, which was odd as Saldana (and the make up job they did on her) did not convince me she was a 70 year old woman. Mainly, it centers around the relationship Nina had with her new manager, Clifton Henderson.

It's another one of these films that tells us more about the type of personality the artist is rather than anything about the person's life. It's similar to Don Cheadle's take on Miles Davis in the film Miles Ahead, but that film had some magic in it that this movie does not.

Saldana and the film did an OK job letting us know the type of artist Nina Simone was, but you did not feel the passion behind it. I know it's near impossible to create a motion picture about Nina that would visually do what Simone could do with her musical talents, but I did not feel any effort towards it at all.

So overall, at the moment Saldana still has playing the most ionic woman in Sci-Fi on the top of her resume, while playing the greatest singer of all time will not even register. The make-up was fine and her voice was satisfying, but like I said I was not expected her to sound like Nina Simone, but this movie is not passionate like her music.

This is a biography of Nina Simone, alcoholic, drug user and occasional singer by this biopic. The film opens in 1946 at age 13 she gives a recital. Her name was not Nina (Zoe Saldana) at that time. She had changed it so her family would not be embarrassed by her profession. The film picks up later after she tries to shoot a man in 1985, not 1995 as the film wrongly states. It moves forward with her struggle with alcohol and relationship with Clifton (David Oyelowo) with minor flashbacks.

The acting was great, unfortunately the editing and script left much to be desired. It concentrated too much on her demons and little to nothing on her music. One would argue that was in intent, but they missed an opportunity to make a truly entertaining film.

Guide: F-word. Implied sex. Minor rear nudity.