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Amazon.co.uk Review
The spirit of Motown runs through the long-awaited film adaption of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls, which centres around a young female singing trio who burst upon the music scene in the '60s, complete with bouffant hairdos, glitzy gowns, and a soul sound new to the white-bread American music charts. Sound familiar? You aren't the first one to draw comparisons to the meteoric rise of the Supremes, and despite any protests to the contrary, this is most definitely a thinly veiled reinterpretation of that success story. The Dreamettes--statuesque Deena (Beyonce Knowles), daffy Lorell (Anika Noni Rose) and brassy Effie (Jennifer Hudson)--are a girl group making the talent-show rounds when they're discovered by car salesman and aspiring music manager Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx). Sensing greatness (as well as a new marketing opportunity) Curtis signs the Dreamettes as backup singers for R&B star James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy). But when Early's mercurial ways and singing style don't mesh with primarily white audiences, Curtis moves the newly-renamed Dreams to center stage--with Deena as lead singer in place of Effie. And that's not the only arena in which Effie is replaced, as Curtis abandons their love affair for a relationship with star-in-the-making Deena.
Besides the Supremes comparison, one can't talk about Dreamgirls now without revisiting its notorious Oscar snub; though it received eight nominations, the most for any film from 2006, it was shut out of the Best Picture and Director races entirely. Was the oversight justified? While Dreamgirls is certainly a handsomely mounted, lovingly executed and often vibrant film adaptation, it inspires more respect than passion, only getting under your skin during the musical numbers, which become more sporadic as the film goes on. Writer-director Bill Condon is definitely focused on recreating the Motown milieu (down to uncanny photographs of Knowles in full Diana Ross mode), he often forgets to flesh out his characters, who even on the Broadway stage were underwritten and relied on powerhouse performances to sell them to audiences. (Stage fans will also note that numerous songs are either truncated or dropped entirely from the film.) Condon has assembled a game cast, as Knowles does a canny riff on the essence of Diana Ross' glamour (as opposed to an all-out impersonation) and Rose makes a peripheral character surprisingly vibrant; only Foxx, who never gets to pour on the charisma, is miscast.
Still, there are two things even the most cranky viewers will warm to in Dreamgirls: the performances of veteran Eddie Murphy and newcomer Jennifer Hudson. Murphy is all sly charm and dazzling energy as the devilish Early, who's part James Brown, part Little Richard, and all showman. And Hudson, an American Idol contestant who didn't even make the top three, makes an impressive debut as the larger-than-life Effie, whose voice matches her passions and stubbornness. Though she sometimes may seem too young for the role, Hudson nails the movie's signature song, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," with a breathtaking power that must be seen and heard to believe. And for those five minutes, if not more, you will be in Dreamgirls' thrall. --Mark Englehart
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This film's got Soul,
By
This review is from: Dreamgirls (2 Disc Special Edition) [DVD] (DVD)
This film is awesome. I can't compare it to seeing the broadway show as I've not been fortunate enough to see Dreamgirls on broadway. I would imagine that it loses a little something when converted to film, its usually the case. But You should never write a musical off, just because its on film. If this film taught me anything - it's that!
The songs are fantastic and I think do justice to the Motown sound they are there to imitate, every song is performed with a lot of care and attention and I was drawn into the story pretty early on. Jennifer Hudson is definitely the star of the show, but the supporting cast are what makes this film great. Beyonce does a great job of underplaying her voice for the majority of the film, which not only helps serve the dynamic between her character and Jennifer Hudson's - but also makes her delivery of the song "Listen" much stronger and more relevant to the story. Eddie Murphy is outstanding throughout and he takes the character of Jimmy Early on an extremely convincing emotional ride through fame, fortune, women and the pitfalls that such a life can bring. He's got a pretty good soulful voice on him too! Jamie Foxx is also very good - though its clear that his skills lie more in acting than in singing. His character sings less frequently than any other of the main parts and you can kind of hear why (sorry Mr. Foxx). He's by no means awful, just understandably underused. For me this film earns a solid 4 stars out of five - however, today its getting a 5 out of 5 from me purely to bring up the average that the first reviewer has caused with his 1 star rating. I know reviews are essentially one person pushing their views onto others but they are also meant to provide a rounded view from like minded individuals - especially on a site like this! Ignore his review. If you like musicals and are open minded enough to realise that musicals are a current medium for telling stories (and not some stone age concept as you may have been lead to believe) then see this film. You'll enjoy it!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Film FANTASTIC singing from Jennifer Hudson,
By
This review is from: Dreamgirls (1 Disc Edition) [DVD] (DVD)
First of all, this film is NOT the story of Diana Ross & the Supremes, no one in it sounds like either Ms Ross or the Supremes & there are no obvious Motown sounding songs in the film.
The film's story does take bits of the Supremes & Motown's history & clearly intends viewers to make the connections. As such, 'Berry Gordy' (Curtis Taylor Jr. in the film, well acted by Jamie Foxx) comes out badly, being depicted as a money chasing white wannabe, dumbing down the `blackness' of his acts in order to sell records to (white) pop music buyers. What the movie doesn't do is put this in context; making a success as a black person in 1960s America was harder than most modern day viewers could ever imagine. If it meant some compromises along the way in putting black artists on TV & in the charts & out of poverty then surely it was worth it. Today's black stars such as Oprah Whitney & Destiny' Child have testified how they were inspired by Diana Ross etc. Anyway, back to the film. The acting is uniformly good, Eddie Murphy shows he can really sing, Beyoncé Knowles shows she can act as well as sing & the film is consistently interesting in showing glimces of a long gone time as well as how tough the music business can be. In truth, if you don't like soul music then you might find the film boring though the amazing vocal performances of Jennifer Hudson should cure you of that pretty quick! (go to the scene where she sings "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" & then see if soul music still bores you!!) Jennifer Hudson is the star of the film & well deserves the Oscar she got for her performance. Her acting is surprising good but her singing - sounding a lot like Aretha Franklin at her best - is simply out standing, & worth the price of the disk 100 times over! She shows that Simon Cowell may know what music sells but knows nothing about quality & also effortlessly destroys the notion that singers like Duffy, Amy Winehouse & Joss Stone are `soul' singers. This is a real `feel good' film that thanks to the quality of the singing, can be watched over & over again!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent if you like musicals,
By
This review is from: Dreamgirls [HD DVD] (HD DVD)
I bought this from Amazon.com about 3 weeks ago. The first time I viewed the film I thought I had made a bad choice because it was hard to hear some of the dialogue due to background effects. That aside however, I found the HD quality very good and the vocals and acting are excellent. A lot of the dialogue is sung rather than spoken which adds to the enjoyment. Disc 2 is also filmed in HD and has excerpts from the screen tests as well as interviews with the wardrobe designers, set designers etc. All in all, a very enjoyable film. Especially if you like musicals.
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