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Why Do Fools Fall in Love

Play trailer Poster for Why Do Fools Fall in Love R 1998 1h 55m Biography Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
54% Tomatometer 56 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
In 1956, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers landed a doo-wop hit with Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Fame turned to tragedy as lead singer Lymon (Larenz Tate) descended into substance abuse that eventually claimed his life at age 25. But Lymon didn't just leave his fans bereft -- he also left behind three women, and each believes she's owed his song royalties: Platters singer Zola Taylor (Halle Berry), prostitute Elizabeth Waters (Vivica A. Fox) and schoolteacher Emira Eagle (Lela Rochon).
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Why Do Fools Fall in Love

Why Do Fools Fall in Love

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Critics Consensus

This is a fun comedy with delightful musical numbers.

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Critics Reviews

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Keith Phipps AV Club 05/23/2019
Why Do Fools Fall In Love never really conveys the essence of its subject. Go to Full Review
Paul Tatara CNN.com 05/23/2019
"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is a misfire in several ways, but the key problem is that the writers have a clunky, concrete Christmas tree, not something thematic that can be used to devise scenes of various shades and colors. Go to Full Review
Todd McCarthy Variety 06/18/2008
Too ill defined to emerge from the pack of box office also-rans. Go to Full Review
Barbara Shulgasser Common Sense Media 08/27/2019
2/5
Drug use brings down teen idol; sex, violence, cursing. Go to Full Review
Serena Donadoni Metro Times (Detroit, MI) 05/23/2019
Why Do Fools Fall in Love, in its own glossy, entertaining way, is a deeper examination of how an individual can use numerous masks to conceal himself, even from the ones he loves. Go to Full Review
Dave McCoy Film Threat 12/06/2005
0.5/5
This biopic is soulless, underwritten, over-acted and, worse, just plain dull. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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RONALD J @Ron9225 12/17/2023 Good performances, great music, with some really good comedic moments, this film manages to tell what is ultimately a sad story in an engaging way See more deke p 06/10/2021 Shd be 5 stars for the music, 1 star for the jerk he turned out to be. So sorry. I remember & loved it well in '56. Seems most if not all of this genre of the real lives of pop music stars shine the light of truth on how fame and fortune took them to the depths & destroyed them. It would be disillusioning.. it it wasn't so normal and expected. See more 02/17/2019 Loved it. Real portrayal of each character brought to life. Best performances by Lorenz, Vivica, Halle, and Lela. They each did an awesome job! Music was great too.... See more 05/30/2018 The story was good, but the majority of the movie was bad. It was really upsetting that they didn't use the story that was originally written for him. I did not like the fact that they decided to make the whole movie based around his three wives, no one cares about a court hearing with his three wives, we want to know if his life as an artist just like every other celebrity made movie. I felt like part of it was truthful and part of it was not. The beginning was not very good and hardly touched at all on how he started etc. The end got better, when it got into the drug part that is when it started to get good and did like how they pointed out that he didnt have a party before he overdosed!! However the worst thing of all about the movie is the Actor Looks nothing Like Him, Doesnt Act like him, Sounds like Him, Look Like him, Talk Like Him, That is what ruined it for me is they didnt even try to find someone who actually could play frankie lymon, they just put a popular african american actor to play his part. Every celebrity movie I have ever seen always tries to atleast get the main character as accurate as possible and the guy in the court looked more like him they the guy who played frankie. It hurts me because there will never be another movie about him again, they had to ruin the first one. I trully feel that way. I wish the original story wrote about him was used and that they actually cared to find someone who could actually play Frankie Lymon. Frankie Lymon is My Absolute Favorite artist of all time, and I know all of his songs, Nothing more serious to me then that. I find it very sad. Frankie Lymon was unique and I was they just captured his character in the movie , and had it look some what like him. The old new york accent he had, the way he looked, and so much else. I trully hope someone will make a new one. Yet the chances of that are likely none. See more 10/04/2012 I thought it was pretty good, engrossing. See more 08/26/2012 A charming dark and funny film which benefits greatly by amazing performances and musical numbers. See more Read all reviews
Why Do Fools Fall in Love

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Movie Info

Synopsis In 1956, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers landed a doo-wop hit with Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Fame turned to tragedy as lead singer Lymon (Larenz Tate) descended into substance abuse that eventually claimed his life at age 25. But Lymon didn't just leave his fans bereft -- he also left behind three women, and each believes she's owed his song royalties: Platters singer Zola Taylor (Halle Berry), prostitute Elizabeth Waters (Vivica A. Fox) and schoolteacher Emira Eagle (Lela Rochon).
Director
Gregory Nava
Producer
Stephen Nemeth, Paul Hall
Screenwriter
Tina Andrews
Distributor
Warner Bros.
Production Co
Rhino Films, Warner Brothers
Rating
R
Genre
Biography
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 8, 1998, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 1, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA)
$12.5M
Runtime
1h 55m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1), 35mm
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