Dreamgirls (2006)
Genres : Drama, Musical/Performing Arts and Adaptation
Tagline : Fame Comes And Goes, Stars Rise And Fall, But Dreams Live Forever
Release Date : December 15th, 2006 (limited); December 25th, 2006 (wide)
MPAA Rating : PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug content
Runtime : 131 min
Country : USA
Language : English
Color : Color
Trivia : After the original stage production proved successful, the film version went through several incarnations. In the late 1980s Whitney Houston was considered for the role of Deena, but negotiations fell through when Houstion insisted that Deena sing some of Effie’s songs, specifically, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”, as well. In the early 1990s, after the success of _What’s Love Got To Do With It (1993)_ , Joel Schumacher was set to direct, with Lauren Hill set to play Deena and Kelly Price set to play Effie. However, after the box-office failure of several other musical biopics, the project was again shelved. After the success of Chicago (2002), the producers approached Bill Condon, who had long considered an adaptation his dream project.
Goofs : Anachronisms: When the 1962 Cadillac Deville Convertible is put up on the lift, you can see all-weather radial tires, which they did not have back then, with treads you would not have seen until the nineties.
Description : Effie White, Deena Jones, and Lorrell Robinson - three friends from Chicago - are a promising singing trio called The Dreamettes. Accompanied by their songwriter C.C. White (Effie’s brother), they travel to New York to compete in a talent show at the Apollo Theatre. Although the girls lose this first bid for fame, their talent attracts
an ambitious manager by the name of Curtis Taylor, Jr., who uses unscrupulous tactics to move the girls from backup singers of superstar James “Thunder” Early to superstars of their own. Curtis reshapes the group to “crossover” from R & B to the lucrative pop music scene. Lead singer Effie gets replaced by the more attractive Deena and is eventually dropped from the trio. The group evolves into a more sophisticated group, The Dreams, with a lighter sound and chic look. They successfully attract a “whiter” audience and The Dreams rise to international stardom. The money, fame, and adulation, however, doesn’t bring them happiness.
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Review : If my movie reviews had headlines, this one’s would be: “A Star is Born.” More like a Supernova. Jennifer Hudson explodes onto screen in this incendiary production of the Broadway musical inspired by Motown and the Supremes. She is mesmerizing. She is dazzling. She is fierce. She shimmers. She melts. She breaks your heart and then she puts it back together so she can melt it. Her voice is sensational, but the real surprise is her acting, which is at the same time commanding and vulnerable. She is a star.
The other star of the movie is screenwriter/director Bill Condon, who blasts through the weaknesses in the underlying material (uneven quality of music that is second-rate Broadway and thus tenth-rate R&B, under-written characters, creaky plot) with unhesitating nerve and electric energy. His direction is a kind of choreography all its own, dynamic and organic. In other words, it has a good beat and you can dance to it.
“Dreamgirls” is the story of three young women who have sung together since they were children. Effie (Hudson) sings lead. She has a strong voice, strong opinions and a very strong personality. Effie, Deena (Beyonce Knowles), and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) dream of making it as professionals.
They are asked to sing back-up for James “Thunder” Early (Eddie Murphy, in a career-restoring performance). At first reluctant, because they want to be a group on their own, they agree — chaperone included — and we launch into a road montage as they learn about show business, from cramped tour buses to predatory men. Lorrell succumbs to the married Early. Ambitious manager Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx) becomes romantically involved with Effie, but then, when there’s a chance for mainstream success, he replaces her as lead singer and love interest with slender, conventionally pretty, pliant Deena and renames them the Dreams. Soon, Effie is out of the group all together, though on her way out she gets to sing one of the greatest show-stopping songs in the history of Broadway: “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” a gospel-infused powerhouse wail of the heartbreak and rage of rejection.
Taylor builds a recording empire and we get another montage of success and superstardom with a dazzling run of costumes and hairstyles and some soapy sturm und drang until we get to the “had I but known” and “I have to do what is right for me” moments and the big finish.
Along the way, the movie takes on some ambitious themes, from the mainstreaming of R&B into pop to the compromises people make in the name of ambition and the consequences for friends and families. And it is impossible to forget the resonance with the real-life back-stories of its cast — Hudson’s comeback from her loss on “American Idol,” the rumors about Knowles’ own Diana Ross-style diva behavior in the replacement of singers in Destiny’s Child and its subsequent break-up, Murphy’s tabloid appearances and professional slide from Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours to Daddy Day Care and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.
This substance anchors the glossy material, helping it transcend the “Is that supposed to be Barry Gordy? Is that supposed to be James Brown?” questions and making it archetypal instead of derivative, a movie instead of a music video, powerful as well as entertaining.
Parents should know that this film has some mature themes, including racism, behavior that would be deemed sexual harassment, and drug abuse, including an offscreen drug overdose. Characters use some strong language, drink, and smoke. A character has an out-of-wedlock child. A strength of the movie is its frank portrayal of the racism of the era and the way white performers (or less provocative black performers) appropriated the music of minorities who could not get a chance in mainstream outlets.
Families who see this movie should talk about which of the characters made compromises and what the results were. They should also talk about the early days of pop music, when white artists like Pat Boone had hits covering songs from “race records.” Is there still a racial divide in the music business today? How can you tell? Who changed for the better in this story and who changed for the worse? Why?
Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Lady Sings the Blues (very mature material), with the Supremes’ Diana Ross as Billie Holliday, Ray, with Jamie Foxx in his Oscar-winning performance as Ray Charles, and other movies about the early days of the rock and R&B music industry Sparkle, American Hot Wax, and Grace of My Heart. They will also enjoy the spectacular documentaries Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Only the Strong Survive, and Lightning in a Bottle.
Distributors : Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG
Directed by : Bill Condon
Produced by : Patricia Whitcher, Laurence Mark
Sound Mix : DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS
Awards : Nominated for 8 Oscars. Another 26 wins & 43 nominations
Official Website : www.dreamgirlsmovie.com
Actors :
Beyonce Knowles | Deena Jones
Jamie Foxx | Curtis Taylor, Jr.
Eddie Murphy | James “Thunder” Early
Danny Glover | Marty Madison
Jennifer Hudson | Effie White
Anika Noni Rose | Lorrell Robinson
Keith Robinson | C.C. White
Bobby Slayton | Sandy Price
John Krasinski | Sam Walsh
Jocko Sims | Elvis Kelly
Sharon Leal | Michelle Morris
Hinton Battle | Wayne
Jordan Belfi | Adam Brooks
Yvette Nicole Brown | Curtis’ Secretary
Yvette Cason | May
Robert Cicchini | Nicky Sylvano
Colvon Collins | Jimmy - Early Band
Alexander Folk | Ronald
Jonell Kennedy | Joann
Dawnn Lewis | Melba Early
John Lithgow | Jerry Harris
Rory O’Malley | Dave
Ken Page | Max Washigton
Esther Scott | Aunt Ethel
Mariah I. Wilson | Magic
Jordan Wright | Teddy Campbell
- Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
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(9 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)
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February 17th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Quoted ” KentAustin from United States” :
was never quite as dramatically intense or focused as the first. And the movie feels pretty much the same way. But, believe me, this is a minor flaw compared to what’s RIGHT about Dreamgirls.
I saw a preview screening of Dreamgirls on Nov. 15. and have to say I was pretty blown away by it. I can always tell when a movie really hits me because the thought immediately runs through my head, “Wow, I can’t wait to OWN this on DVD.” Needless to say, Dreamgirls is now at the top of my “To Buy” list.
I saw the original Michael Bennett production in 1985, a few years into its Broadway run when Jennifer Holliday was no longer in the Effie role. But even without Holliday I found the show and its score to be among Broadway’s best. While I certainly hoped this movie would at least give us a respectable representation of what made the Broadway show so thrilling, I must admit I was afraid to get my expectations too high after the recent string of disappointing stage to screen musical transfers - Phantom of the Opera, Rent and The Producers. Yeah, I had heard the buzz was good for Dreamgirls, but, well, you know how that goes. Sometimes the bigger the buzz the flatter it falls.
And let’s face it. Movie musicals are just flat-out tough to pull off. While I consider the number of truly great movies to be pretty small, the list of truly great movie MUSICALS is even smaller. And the ones that manage to do more than just recreate a literal adaptation of the stage play, truly utilizing the medium of film to create something bold and cinematic are almost non existent: Cabaret, Chicago…maybe one or two others…end of story. Plus, I think it’s even more difficult to successfully transfer musicals to film today given modern audiences inability to accept characters “breaking into song.”
So I hope I’m not adding to the already extensive hype when I report that, for me at least, Dreamgirls delivers big time. The film manages to achieve the near impossible task of remaining faithful to it’s source material (in fact, several times it gives direct nods to Bennett’s brilliant original staging) while utilizing the medium of film to it’s fullest, creating something fresh and exciting in its own right.
Dreamgirls not only transitions seamlessly between spoken dialog and musical numbers, but redefines musical storytelling by using the musical artifice of “breaking into song” carefully and judiciously to punctuate only those moments in the movie when the emotion builds to the point where words can no longer adequately contain it. I can’t express strongly enough how impressed I was with the way Bill Condon managed to handle these transitions. Truly masterful. But it’s not just the transitions that are handled well. The movie is artfully rendered and exquisitely produced in literally every area with outstanding, heartfelt performances by each and every cast member. And yes, Jennifer Hudson is as good as they say. I can honestly say that there’s no way I can imagine this film being done any better.
If there’s any weak spot in Dreamgirls, it’s the dramatic flaws inherent in the piece itself. The second act of the stage play (after “and I’m telling you I’m not going”
Make no mistake. This film is going to be a triumph and earn a place in movie history. Not to mention my DVD library.