Review: ‘Dreamgirls’
Posted by kittson on 26 Dec 2006 at 4:44 pm | Tagged as: Movies, Review
If you like musicals, you will love Dreamgirls. Directed and adapted by Bill Condon (who wrote the screenplay for the 2002 movie-musical Chicago) from the 1980 Broadway hit of the same name, it’s the story of a 1960’s girl group, The Dreams, and their rise to stardom. The story is borrowed from the history of The Surpremes, and, as a result, the film resembles stylistically some of the recent singer biopics like Ray and Walk the Line. In a nutshell, Dreamgirls is A Star Is Born (the 1954 Judy Garland version) meets What’s Love Got to Do with It.
While it would take a miracle to live up to Jennifer Holliday’s legendary portrayal of Effie White for which she received a Tony Award, Jennifer Hudson (a 2004 American Idol finalist) is no disappointment. She’s a wonderful singer (Fantasia must be glad Hudson never sang like this on Idol), and while she’s singing, she’s an excellent actress. However, when she’s forced to deliver lines, she’s simply adequate. I’ll be dismayed if she wins an Oscar, a possibility that has been suggested by a few critics.
It’s no surprise Beyoncé Knowles, who plays Deena Jones, is a great singer. She’s also beautiful, more beautiful in this film than we’ve ever seen her. Her acting is fine, but if you were hoping for a break-out performance proving she’s an actress, not just a singer who can act, you will be let down.
On the other hand, Eddie Murphy, in the role of Jimmy Early, a singer whose career is winding down, has reinvented himself as a powerful and serious actor. It seems every December I find myself asking, “Did we know s/he could sing like that?” In 2002, it was Catherine Zeta Jones, a year later Eugene Levy, then Jamie Foxx, and last year it was Joaquin Phoenix. This year I’m asking the question about Eddie Murphy whose voice, a cross between James Brown and Brian McKnight, has come a long way since his 1985 single “Party All the Time.”
I do love musicals, and of the recent movie musicals which have enjoyed success (Chicago, The Producers), Dreamgirls is my favorite, because it has an emotional life that warrants the characters’ breaking into song. It’s epic, painful, uplifting – all the qualities needed to inspire a movie audience to break into applause, something that happened three times during my viewing.
Interesting story (perhaps) about this movie…
I started seeing posters for it a month or so back on buses and whatnot around NYC. I don’t really follow Broadway so I was not familiar with the show, and thus knew nothing about ‘Dreamgirls’ save what I saw on the posters…
Now, the poster for this film is three silhouetted female figues with big hair and sequined dresses. And below the three figures the names Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, and Eddie Murphy. So my immediate response was, “Aha. Yet another comedy in which African-American men dress as women.”
And as I kept seeing the posters again and again, I kept thinking about it again and again, and pondering why it is that this genre is such a requisite of the (male) African-American comedy repertoire. Thinking of films like “White Gilrs,” “Big Momma’s House,” etc. I don’t know if Jamie Foxx has been in one of those yet, but I figured this was some sort of rite of passage, meant either to emasculate African-American comedians or perhaps in some way to re-masculinze them. I haven’t actually seen any of these movies and I haven’t given it enough thought to figure out precisely what I think is going on here.
Well, then I heard a comment on WBGO– that’s the jazz radio station in Newark– about Beyonce’s “girl band” in the movie. And suddenly it hit me. ‘Dreamgirls’ isn’t just any cross-dressing movie… it’s a remake of ‘Some Like it Hot!’
Of course! Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy… probably the two most respected black comedic actors of our day (or any day so far)… they’re not being put in just any cross-dressing fantasy, they’re remaking the all-time greatest cross-dressing fantasy ever! And Beyonce is Marilyn.
But it turns out that isn’t correct, either. It’s some musical based on the Supremes and Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy are dressed strictly as men throughout the film. Just goes to show, movie posters sometimes have WAY too little information on them.
Speaking of – Eddie Murphy’s next movie has him dressed up as a woman. In fact, he’s married to himself. It’s called Norbit.