Starring: Beyonc’ Knowles, Eddie Murphy,
Jennifer Hudson, Jamie Foxx, Danny Glover
Directed by Bill Condon
Rated PG-13
3 Pulses
By Matt Tate
Director Bill Condon’s slick, rapturous Motown musical Dreamgirls opens in the early 1960s at an amateur singing competition in a Detroit theater where infectious soul harmonies are rousing the crowd to near-combustible levels. The effect is two-fold: Both the crowd in attendance and the audience in the movie theater are energized by the glitzy glamour on stage.
Unfortunately, the buzz doesn’t last as the energy ebbs and flows, but there are enough moments of sustained vigor to carry this splashy Broadway adaptation.
Dreamgirls chronicles the career of the Dreamettes, a thinly-veiled version of the Supremes. The Dreamettes are led by the fiery, robust Effie White (Hudson), whose attitude is as big as her voice. Under the tutelage of snake-eyed hustler Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx channeling Motown mogul Berry Gordy Jr.), the Dreamettes back up James “Thunder” Early (Murphy), a fading soul sensation with a voracious appetite for booze, women and drugs.
The Dreamettes help Early achieve a modicum of R&B success with “Cadillac Car,” but lose a popular audience when the song is hijacked by a white, Pat Boone-esque artist. Taylor acknowledges the commercial appeal of bland musicians, so when the Dreamettes are given a chance at the spotlight, Effie is pushed to the background by the more vanilla Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles, perfectly suited for this role of art imitating life, given her Destiny’s Child tribulations).
The night Effie is replaced in the trio, she belts out the searing “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” It’s a star-making performance, and Hudson nails it with her brazen vulnerability.
It’s these moments, which include Murphy’s meltdown during “Jimmy Got Soul,” that transcend the screen and lift Dreamgirls above its formulaic material.
Dreamgirls would have perhaps been even more effective if Condon wasn’t so ambivalent about whether his film is a musical or a melodrama with music. Most scenes contain realistic dialogue, but occasionally, a character will abruptly break into song. Condon’s hesitancy to commit to a genre robs Dreamgirls of some of its punch.
Still, there are enough zest and thrills in the picture to survive its occasional lapses and jarring transitions. The ultimate compliment for a musical is for the audience to get the same type of rush as they would on Broadway. Thanks to Murphy, who gives the performance of his career, and newcomer Hudson, Dreamgirls does just that.
