Dreamgirls

Rating: 6/10 (29 January 2007)

Please note : This film has just won 3 Golden Globes - including Best Musical/Comedy 2006. Please also note : This film has been nominated for 8 Oscars. Hence: Some people must love it!
Based on the highly successful 1981 Broadway musical, Dreamgirls tells the story of an Afro-American all-girl soul group - the Dreamettes - who hook up with Curtis Taylor Jnr, a Cadillac salesman in the early sixties. The ambitious Taylor becomes their manager and through his Rainbow Records gradually manipulates them into becoming the highest selling female group in the US, through methods that are highly dubious. Needless to say, the storyline pretty much mirrors the careers of the Supremes, Diana Ross, and their manager Berry Gordy Jnr (the founder of Tamla Motown Records, and who also married Ross along the way).
** 3 things to like about Dreamgirls 1. Eddie Murphy in the role of R&B star James 'Thunder' Early. In a career move reminiscent of John Travolta's performance in Pulp Fiction, Murphy proves not only he can act, but boy can he move! Channelling James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and Marvin Gaye, Murphy is the film's surprise hit, and heart of the film's best songs. 2. Newcomer Jennifer Hudson (ex-American Idol finalist) in her performance as Effie White - the original lead singer of the Dreamettes - dumped along the way by Curtis as part of an image change for the group. Big woman and a fabulous voice - Beyonce Knowles pales alongside her. 3. The production design and style in recreating the US pop music industry. The 60's R&B concerts and the sequences where The Dreamgirls (and leader Deena Jones) are performing hit after hit in the seventies are flawlessly staged and look a million dollars.
** 3 things not to like about Dreamgirls 1. Jamie Foxx is surprisingly bland as the morally challenged manager Curtis Taylor Jnr. After his Oscar-winning role as Ray Charles in Ray! I would have expected a scenery-chewing performance in this role. Not so - Foxx gives off such a laid-back vibe that he seems inconsequential to much of the action. 2. Beyonce Knowles in the Diana Ross-type role of Deena Jones. Knowles lost weight to play this role, and it seems to have affected her energy level. She also seems a bystander to much of the film. 3. The original songs, written for the stage musical and film, that mimic the Tamla Motown sound. Nothing holds a candle to the original Supremes classics of the era. The material suffers from having to move the plot forward through the lyric content.
Summary : Dreamgirls is worth seeing for Eddie Murphy alone, but is vastly overrated as a film musical.