1 (and 6). Later she did say she loved James in her own way, but I think she only wanted to bring him along to piss off her husband. She also said she left him because she loved him, so deep down I'm sure she knew that dragging her son with her to become a prostitute wasn't best for him - which is why she didn't try all that hard to bring him along when her husband threatened her with a gun.
As a side note, I think Susie was deliberately meant to be sort of indecisive and flighty to show where James got his complexity from. She had her moments where she loved him (like in that initial scene where she's playing with him) and immediately becomes off her rocker in the next scene. As a result, the audience is confused about her motives and James is kind of confused about his feelings for her as well. He wanted her looked after, but made it clear he didn't want anything to do with her either.
I love Viola Davis and she was amazing at the part, but she did seem too old to be his mother. Given the flakiness of her character and the fact that she was immature, ran off to be a prostitute, and had an explosive relationship with her husband, I'd expect this from a young, rash woman, not an older woman that looks like she's already had a few kids. Rather than give her part solely to a younger actress, I could see Viola playing Susie in the later years, and someone else in the first scene.
2. The same reason why the door is unlocked in all movies where teenagers are caught having sex. To add drama to the role. I did expect them to go somewhere with it, though (from someone that knew nothing about the life of James Brown). Besides, James was like what, 20 around this time? I won't say he was stupid, but he did a lot of things that made no sense, like stealing the suit in the first place.
3. Yvonne Faire was a singer that joined his revue around that time. She died in her fifties. I'm not sure why they made a big deal about her introduction either. I think it was just them trying to drop as many encounters with other legends as they could that didn't really have a huge effect on the story. Like The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger produced it, so of course he was going to throw in a scene where JB met his band.
4. That's a matter of opinion, but I thought the breaking of the 4th wall was a unique addition to the film, even though I didn't pay a lot of attention to what he was saying (it sounded like egotistical rambling and was sometimes hard to hear because of the mumbling accent JB adopted when he got big).
5. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with Chadwick, but I wouldn't be that surprised if he didn't win anything. Mainly because this movie didn't get a ton of recognition. I saw maybe two or three trailers for this movie over the course of a month while Guardians of the Galaxy was being thrown up everywhere on all channels.
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