Lymon did a whole lot of living in those short years, and Why Do Fools Fall in Love works through them via a series of flashbacks told by his three wives, each claiming in court two decades after his death to be the rightful heir to his estate.

Wife number one is Elizabeth (Vivica A. Fox), a down-on-her-luck single mother who meets Frankie (Larenz Tate) just at the beginning of his downslide. She’s the one who puts up with his stealing and shelters him from the side effects of his drug use. Wife number two is Zola (Halle Berry), the female member of the Platters who knew Frankie during his glory days and takes him in when he attempts a comeback. Wife number three is Emira (Lela Rochon), a simple, Georgia schoolteacher, who is wooed by Frankie while he’s on leave from the army, and she’s the one who buries him. None of them get off easy, and each feels entitled to some sort of reparation.

Elizabeth and Zola are both world-weary women who encountered each other before in their dealings with Frankie. They bicker and shove and throw out insults about each other’s hair. Emira is a different breed, and Elizabeth and Zola are a little mystified at first about Frankie’s draw to her. In the end, though, they recognize their common bond and the joys and miseries that accompanied involvement with Frankie.

While the scenes in which the women sass it out provide comic relief, they are also a little distracting. Mainly, this is due to Berry, who looks unlined and perfect when playing a 48-year-old, while the other two submitted to body-padding and aging makeup. Also thrown in for good measure is a courtroom cameo by Little Richard (he toured with Lymon), who gets to work in his whole architect-of-rock-and-roll bit while testifying, which means nothing to the moment at hand, no matter how amusing it is to hear him tell the room to shut up. (Little Richard, in fact, should have his very own biopic.)