Dreamgirls

I guess i'm in a musical mood or something, with my last review of Once and now Dreamgirls, which is odd seeing as how its the genre I try to stay away from the most. But flipping through the channels this afternoon, Dreamgirls was on, and I had heard it was good or something, so I watched it.

Dreamgirls came out a year ago, so i'm a little late to the show, but remember the point of this blog is to just tell you about whatever I happen to watch, not just shiny new stuff. Basically, Dreamgirls the movie is based off of Dreamgirls the successful broadway musical of the 80's. As fair warning, i've never been a huge fan of Broadway, Broadway Musicals, or Hollywood film adaptations of Broadway Musicals, so this movie kind of had three strikes against going into it.

Dreamgirls tells the story of R&B during the doo-wop era and onward, and follows the story of the Dreamettes-turned-Dreams, a Supremes-like trio of Effie White (Jennifer Hudson), Deena Jones (Beyoncé), and Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni rose) and their quick rise to fame on the Billboard Charts. Like all good episodes of VH1's Behind the Music, Dreamgirls soon shows us that fame has a price in "Act II" of the movie, but leaves us with a uplifting final note.

In contrast to the touching simplicity and stripped down musical arrangements of Once, Dreamgirls boasts elaborate musical numbers and stage performances, in what I can only imagine stays faithful to the spirit of Motown and a broadway production. However in keeping with that spirit, the musical elements of this "musical" are not merely contained to the on stage performances, but rather characters sometimes break into spontaneous recitative song. I have to say, there is nothing I hate more than when characters speak to each other in song and dance out their feelings (thus my dislike of musicals and broadway.) So really, for me, that is where this movie went a little off. I would have enjoyed it much more had the singing been kept just for actual performances.

That being said though, the musical numbers are well produced and performed, and enjoyable. Jennifer Hudson, in keeping with the theme of those NOT winning American Idol being more successful than those that do, is awesome in this, both in voice and in acting. (She of course won the oscar for supporting actress.)

However I thought the movie as a whole had little substance outside of the musical performances, and relied too heavily on great singing to get by. For such a very talented cast, great individual performances failed to connect into a cohesive achievement. Like I said, it was like rushing through a musical version of VH1's Behind the Music, pulling clichéd elements of all the other music biopics out there (Foxx's Ray for one). The movie started out on all cylinders, and kept it going without a rest for the entire two hours - and that isn't a good thing. It didn't stop to take a much needed breath.

Watch it for the music, and to look at Beyoncé - but don't expect much of substance out of it.

"Dreamgirls" at Rotten Tomatoes - 78%
"Dreamgirls" at IMDB