Very good film but Jennifer Hudson (excellent actress) had none of the vocal charisma of Aretha - as illustrated over the end credits when Aretha herself sang for Obama and others a few years before she died and the roof came off the Leicester Square cinema. My God she was, indeed, the greatest female singer of all time and unlike Hudson (from the Got Talent/X Factor school of vocal photocopies) incredibly original and blessed by God.

At one of Clive Davis' wonderful pre-Grammy parties, Whitney Houston sang and then Clive went over to Aretha and asked if she could sing a song too. Sitting at the table, chicken leg in hand, not even bothering to stand up, the Diva showed there was NO surpassing her (even by Princess Whitney) and gave the most extraordinary performance I've ever heard. One of the great moments of my life (along with Bruce in New Jersey and Michael Jackson doing the moon walk for the very first time).