Review: Dreamgirls

Beginning in the 60s, this is the story of The Dreamettes an all-girl African-American trio of singers comprising of headstrong lead vocalist Effie (Jennifer Hudson), outwardly beautiful and marketable Deena (Beyonce Knowles), and the other one (Anika Noni Rose). Smooth, Berry Gordy-esque manager Curtis (Jamie Foxx) hears them at a talent show and signs them up as the renamed The Dreams, starting as the backing singers for troubled singer James Early (Eddie Murphy), and eventually having them break out on their own. Their songs are written by Effie’s brother C.C. (Keith Robinson). Tensions arise when Curtis suggests that Deena would be more marketable to a mainstream audience as lead singer, angering the tempestuous Effie, who clearly has the more powerful voice. The record sales might sore, but the ‘family’ start to crumble, whilst James Early (who despite being married, hooks up with impressionable Lorrell, played by Rose) completely bottoms out due to wildly self-destructive behaviour.

 

Although musicals are about as far from my kind of thing as you can get, this 2006 big screen version of the 1981 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical from writer-director Bill Condon (“Gods and Monsters”, “Twilight: Breaking Dawn”) is overall a good movie. The early stages of this unofficial Diana Ross and The Supremes story are easy, breezy, and fun. There’s an especially brilliant bit where a Pat Boone-ish piece of nothingness takes one of C.C.’s songs and scores a vanilla hit with it. It’s a good facsimile of the real deal, unlike a lot of films about musicians that end up being phony poseurs that don’t convince. Eddie Murphy may very well have been robbed of an Oscar here in the role he was simply born to play: A James Brown rip-off with a touch of Rick James self-destruction and a smidgeon of Chuck Berry perversion. His character always seems to be on the verge of public nudity/humiliation. His singing gets the job done too, as there’s a little bit of Levi Stubbs to his voice. Murphy atones for ‘Party All the Time’ here, if not “Harlem Nights” and “Pluto Nash”.

 

It gets less interesting the darker and longer it gets, but there’s no doubting the Oscar-winning ‘And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going’ is an absolute show-stopper of singing and acting by Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson. Hudson as a singer has always had a bit of an issue with control for me, all the way back to “American Idol”, but here she quite simply soars vocally, even more so than Beyoncé Knowles, and it’s not because Beyoncé is holding back like others would have you believe (I did wonder if Beyoncé thought Hudson was the wind beneath her wings at one point, though). I refuse to believe someone would hire Beyoncé for a movie to be upstaged and invisible. It’s an absurd notion meant to protect her image as (wait for it, Kanye) ‘The Greatest of All-Time’. I almost felt like giving Hudson a standing ovation at the end of her big number, and I’m a paraplegic (I think the best song in the film, though, is Hudson’s ‘I Love You I Do’). Could Beyoncé sing that song as well as Hudson does? Hell no. I dare her to try. Don’t believe it? Listen to Beyoncé’s big number, which is easy to spot because it has quite clearly been shoe-horned into the film. She shows that she can technically belt out a tune, but hey, lots of girls can. Beyoncé delivers generic ‘big’ vocals with zero life to it, no texture (And even then she pales in comparison to Mariah and Whitney). Hudson has all that in spades, and best of all she can act, too. It’s quite simply one of the best movie debuts ever. Part of the reason why Hudson can sing ‘And I’m Telling You…’ whereas Beyoncé would fail, is because the song really only works in context (Hence why it never works when singers try to do it on “American Idol”), and you really do need to be a top actress as well as singer to do it justice. Hudson has the acting chops and screen presence, Beyoncé doesn’t. In fact, I’d advise against acting ever again. She’s frankly miscast here, not because she’s too talented, but because she isn’t talented enough. That’s why Hudson, Murphy, and even Jamie Foxx all steal the film from Beyoncé (Then again, she's playing the 'star' of the group, not the best singer so perhaps it's perfect casting in that sense). It’s a shame co-star Sharon Leal (one of the most beautiful women in the entire world) is stuck playing the replacement role, because the singer-actress would’ve been exponentially better in the role than Beyoncé and has charisma oozing out of every pore.

 

A slick Jamie Foxx is rock-solid here, and although not a great singer, he’s good enough to play one. In that sense it’s a shame his vocals in “Ray” were dubbed for the most part. I understand why, but it’s good to hear him here nonetheless. Danny Glover also contributes one of the better performances of his post-dentures career, as Murphy’s arse-kissing agent.

 

Overall, this is a good movie, and Jennifer Hudson is sensational. I just wish some of the second half was shorn to make the film shorter and better.

 

Rating: B-