Dreamgirls (2006)
The Cast
Jamie Foxx ... Curtis Taylor, Jr.
Beyoncé Knowles ... Deena Jones
Eddie Murphy ... James "Thunder" Early
Danny Glover ... Marty Madison
Jennifer Hudson ... Effie White
Anika Noni Rose ... Lorrell Robinson
Keith Robinson ... C.C. White
Hinton Battle ... Wayne
John Lithgow ... Jerry Harris
John Krasinski ... Sam Walsh
Jaleel White ... Talent Booker
I'm going to be completely honest with you dear reader. When I first heard about Dreamgirls, it was in a GIANT magazine article about Beyoncé. And right then and there I never had any desire to ever watch the movie. If my life stretched on for another 70 years (god fucking forbid!), I figured there would never be an instance in which I would say "Hey, I'm curious about that Dreamgirls movie, I think I'll watch it now!" Then everyone started talking about Jennifer Hudson's amazing performance, and I was all like "Jennifer who?" And then the voters for the Academy Awards gave Hudson the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Right then and there I decided that I had to see this performance that was apparently better than Abagail Breslin's show-stopping role in Little Miss Sunshine and judge for myself whether or not it was better.
Apparently Dreamgirls was adapted from some Tony-award winning play that began in 1981, with a screenplay written by Bill Condon, who also directed the film. I just found that information out about 20 minutes ago, reading the Wiki entry about the movie. For some reason, my brain was completely devoid of knowledge of the entire existence of Dreamgirls the play. Could this be because I'm as white as can be, and there's nothing in either the play or the movie that remotely touches one of my interests? I think so, yes. The play was apparently loosely based upon the trip The Supremes took to the top of the charts, as well as highlighting the rise of Motown Records in the form of the film's Rainbow Records. Knowing now that the movie was adapted from a play, I can see exactly why it failed as a movie.
Much of my reasoning for determining the movie as a failure can be derived from my review of 2004's The Phantom of the Opera. There's a good way and a bad way to adapt a stage play musical to the silver screen. Chicago did it the right way, Phantom and now Dreamgirls did it the wrong way. I can suspend my disbelief for almost anything when it comes to movies, but I somehow can't do it for some musicals. I can't see any instance that I'd be so happy that I'd instantly sing my words instead of gleefully exclaiming them. It also doesn't help that Dreamgirls the movie is boring as hell for the first 80 minutes or so. Then it gets a little interesting, some white people show up on the screen (completely unrelated to the interesting part but it shocked me a bit), and then it peters out to a predictable conclusion. The character development seems limited to a suspicious sidelong glance by one character at another in the midst of yet another banal song.
In my humblest of opinions, I will agree that Hudson delivered a fairly great performance, but in my eyes not the best of the year. She's a supremely talented singer and owned the screen anytime she was belting out a song, but the time that I was absolutely captivated by her was when she was singing a breezey little pop ditty called "Love You I Do" (which was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar). Everything else about her character seemed far too forced, like they had to slap her around on the set to get her to act like a bitch. I have to give mention to Eddie Murphy's performance as well, top marks to him, even though a cynical person might suggest that his role was basically an audition for a future James Brown biopic.
I think it's safe to say that I almost completely hated the entire movie. Beyoncé and the third skeletal-looking Dream did nothing for me, Jamie Foxx seemed like he was phoning it in, and there was some weird plot devices seemingly shoved into the movie then never mentioned again (that whole Detroit riots thing). Hudson and Murphy were great, but the story still didn't hook me at all, and it was so overwhelming bloated with colour and sparkley things that I felt nauseous for a brief period afterwards. Save yourself two wasted hours and watch South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut instead.
1.5 / 5