More than what it seems.

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2007)

This has just opened in Australia, and is advertised as a MUSICAL. Wrong! This is an OPERA. A full blown opera, sometimes people sing their speeches, sometimes it is over-the-top, always too, too dramatic, and always moving. This is a rare bird in the all singing, all dancing genre, more than just a few songs, and the right people to sing them, and a little story. This is singing without stopping, and the singing is the story, the story could so easily have descended into a cliché', but the reality is kept in the picture with the period clothes and cars, and a happy ending is never sure or foretold. This is a real leap of faith for an American film. The cast is just perfect, and who, just who is Jennifer Hudson? Amazing find. I want to see her as 'Carman Jones'. Jamie Foxx manages to subdue his ego, to be a real person, and not a movie star. Very good. The casting is perfect, even the very small parts, such as the people who walk out of a show, and the sweet white boy who sings a 'bleached' version of a colored song, gosh, I am old....I can remember when 'colored' was the only polite word for Afro-American....I hope this movie gets an Oscar, and I want to see more of Jennifer Hudson. An all-round true to the story and the time, winner.