even with little knowledge about billie holiday life and watch this movie one soon begin to realize and that it be not a biopic about one of the great jazz singer of all time . they obviously just use her name to gain more attention . if you can forget that and you see a story about the life of a fictional jazz singer in the 40 . there be some similarity to billie life represent the prostitution and the drug abuse and a bit of racism . but everything be smooth down and the core of the movie be the love story between the singer and her husband and the love of her life . it even have a happy end represent the successful concert in carnegie hall with the audience applauding and the singer happy and her husband proud and the manager smell the dollar . a a drama or romance for the mass ( or oscar ) market and the movie work well and diana ross performance be surprisingly good and in the more tragic scene she even manage to give it some deepness . billy dee williams look sharp and play his part a the caring husband convincingly . richard pryor unfortunately try to improvise his role and fail . drama or romance fan might enjoy but billie fan good buy a book .