The film could have been better edited and written.

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2007)

As a white, str8 male I enjoyed this story. It's not my favorite genre and the last musical I saw was 'Chicago' but this is by the same director and he has pedigree. However, maybe Mr. Condon should have toned down his ego and worked w/ a collaborator on the story. Too many of the characters are one dimensional and the story skips. As a result the Murphy character is not fully developed considering all the praise Eddie's getting for what is a very limited performance.
What does work (and there should have been more scenes like this) are the two sequences where the characters sing and argue with each other. I'm referring to the "Family" and "And I'm Telling You" set pieces. The film really comes alive during these two scenes and there needed to be much more of that through out the entire movie. There wasn't.
BTW: The "Reunion" happy ending got the audience in the theater I was to really give it a loud applause.