Pretty good musical, I thought better than Chicago

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2007)

Let me get some things out of the way: what DIDN'T I like about it. I thought it was too long (extenuating circumstances: it was past midnight and I just watched Letters from Iwo Jima, not exactly a short film either). The big musical number "And I tell you I'm not Leaving" had Jennifer Hudson acting like an epileptic (maybe I'm just a cultural boor, but her movements just bothered me). What did I love: the looks, the actors, the costumes, and Bill Condon telling a story. Amazingly, this is my first Bill Condon movie. I keep missing his Gods and Monsters and Kinsey. I've heard his movies are intelligent, funny and full of iconoclasts. When I saw Chicago, I heard the "cracking" of the musical was attributed to Condon. So I thought this musical and Condon is a marriage made in heaven. I'm not allergic to fast busy cutting. I'm not allergic to lethargic pacing too. I like the superheated pace and the wit when the Dreamettes go in their upward arc to fame. After that musical number, the movie foundered. I thought it had ended already but it went on and on, but when Jennifer Hudson reappeared, I began to love the movie again. So how does Condon compare to Bob Fosse? Well, they're both intelligent filmmakers, they both like fast cutting, but Fosse is very, very sarcastic, while Condon has a heart like a Care Bear. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you don't expect biting sarcasm in a Condon movie. Not Fosse-level black satire and sarcasm. My favorite moment, when they sing about being a family, trying to reconcile Hudson's demotion to backup singer.