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DREAM GIRLS
If Jennifer Hudson never makes another movie, she will have earned a modest but honorable place in film history on the basis of her performance in DREAMGIRLS. Others in the cast – including Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy – do work they can be proud of, but Hudson turns DREAMGIRLS into an event. It’s to the credit of director Bill Condon that he recognized what he had in this American Idol also-ran and gave her an important role in this picture. Indeed, without Hudson providing that feeling that comes from seeing something extraordinary, DREAMGIRLS might have been just a good film, but one with a glaring weakness. The film has strong roles, good actors and a compelling story. But it has, with only a couple of exceptions, a pedestrian score and generally undistinguished lyrics. Adapted from the long-running Broadway show, DREAMGIRLS tells the story of a singing group known as the Dreams, who in an alternative-universe would be the Supremes. Like the Supremes, who had Florence Ballard as their original lead, the Dreams also start off with a belter as the lead singer – in this case it's Effie, played by Hudson—but for commercial considerations, their manager makes a switch. He takes the prettier girl, Deena (Knowles), and brings her out front, pushing Effie into the background, just as Diana Ross took over the lead from Ballard, even though Ballard had the stronger voice. The film spans a roughly fifteen-year period in pop music history, from the girl-group days of the early '60s to disco's zenith, in the late ‘70s. This was a rich period, full of stylistic and cultural changes that are reflected in the look and manner of the characters. The panorama makes for a satisfying mixture of real life and fantasy, and it all makes DREAMGIRLS an irresistible soap opera, in all its public glamour and private squalor, enhanced further by the perennial allure of “the inside story.” The songs just have to be overlooked. They don't sound like Motown, and they don’t approach Motown in quality. In fact, in the glitzy talent-show sequence that opens the film, it's difficult to tell whether the songs, which all sound alike, are supposed to be bad or are just bad by accident. What does evoke Motown is Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of manager-turned-mogul Curtis Taylor Jr., a character modeled after pop visionary Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown Records. Like Gordy, the coolly confident Taylor has the lucrative but lonely gift of always knowing what the public wants. It's a nice touch in the script that, even when his personal relationships deteriorate, he remains consistently right in his commercial instincts. For his first trick, he makes a mainstream success of a small-time rhythm and blues singer named James "Thunder" Early, bringing to mind a mixture of Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye, and played with barely controlled gusto by Murphy. Murphy's pleasure in the role is contagious. Early's stage antics call to mind Little Richard and James Brown at their most extravagant, and it helps that Murphy can sing well. Beyoncé's pretty good, too. You don't want to sing in the same movie as Hudson, let alone in the same group, but she has a terrific voice, and is effective and at times moving as a modest and easily manipulated young woman, who remains diffident despite the trappings of stardom. But in the end, DREAMGIRLS is Jennifer Hudson’s movie. She closes the second act with one of the few quality songs in the score, and with her powerful voice Hudson sings that song up, down and sideways. It's thrilling to see her standing there and tearing down the house, in one of the most exhilarating scenes in the year-end batch of movies.
Steve Taylor is a retired attorney and magistrate who is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association. His criticism may also be heard each Friday on WHQR-FM (91.3) |
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Carolina Civic Voice Winter 2006-07 Vol. 6, No 4 |
