Adapted from the Tony Award winning musical, Dreamgirls tells the story of an up and coming girl group – who are categorically not based on Diana Ross and The Supremes if anyone asks – making their way into the music business in 1960s Detroit.
After impressing at a local talent show the Dreamettes – Deena (Knowles) Lorrell (Noni Rose) and lead singer Effie (Hudson) – are asked to join legendary Motown singer James “Thunder” Early (Murphy) as backing singers on a nationwide tour.
But this is only the beginning, and their ambitious manager Curtis (Foxx) soon gets them their own deal after rechristening them The Dreams and moving the beautiful, but less talented, Deena to lead vocals – much to the understandable disgust of Effie.
They say:
Total Film: “An old school crowd pleaser in the best Hollywood tradition, Dreamgirls is only let down by its piecemeal structure and nominal leading lady.”
BBC Films: “Effie's struggle for ascendancy is the most compelling thread between predictable romantic subplots and familiar scenes of backstage drug abuse.”
Empire: “Ardent, accomplished, overwhelmingly emotional, with something to say and a dream cast saying it in song. Bravo.”
We say:
A fortnight ago everyone was saying Dreamgirls was going to sweep the board at the Oscars (it was the 11/10 favourite with the bookies for best picture) thanks to its wonderful all star cast, a writer/ director who had engineered similar success with Chicago in 2002 and the stage version’s record breaking popularity on Broadway.
So why then, when the Academy Awards nominations were revealed last Tuesday, was Dreamgirls not even on the shortlist for the big prize?
The main problem is a pronounced lack of truly memorable songs - a fairly critical flaw in a musical - and the most talented singer (Hudson fans will no doubt question this) is wasted in a role that doesn’t allow us to hear what she can really do.
Beyonce’s Deena is constantly gagged by the band’s dictatorial manager as he tries to meld her voice into a more commercial, unremarkable sound. As such, we have to wait until the final ten minutes of the film before she finally breaks free of these chains and her rousing performance of “Listen” perfectly illustrates what the film has been lacking up to this point.
Also, in spite of some energetic direction and a dazzling supporting turn from Eddie Murphy, Bill Condon struggles to disguise the deficiencies in his disappointingly predictable script, which includes too many sub plots and drags on for 20 minutes too long.
Fans of old fashioned, glitzy musicals should still be entertained but this is certainly not the dream ticket that early reports had predicted.
CAST
Beyonce Knowles
Jamie Foxx
Jennifer Hudson
Anika Noni Rose
Eddie Murphy
Danny Glover
DIRECTOR
Bill Condon
TIME
131 mins
POSTED...
Thu 1 Feb 2007 at 10:06pm
