Excellent high paced movie.

Rating: 9/10 (28 January 2007)

While this is a formula movie the execution is excellent and the action carries the movie forward at all times. Jennifer Hudson is magnificent and her voice takes every scene in which she appears. I think the movie makes clear the difficulty that the black performers had when first they attempted to break into the white music scene. I was taken aback when the first "operetta" scenes appeared and thought that they did not work. But if you give yourself up to the movie you will find that indeed they do work and advance the characters far more than mere dialog would. Jennifer Hudson's "soloquiy" was magnificent if a shade too long. I would have liked to see Curtis get his comeuppance more definitely. And finally, the singing and dancing carry the show even if you do not like the plot.