Dreamgirls

Rating: 4/5

Dreamgirls is solid film musical with fantastic performances in both its acting and vocals.

Amid the late 1960s in Detroit, three women are attempting to make it big as a girl group. They can't seem to catch a break, even though their lead Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) has vocals more powerful than anything on the radio. When music manager, Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx) hears their set at a local talent competition, he immediately signs them to sing backup for current R&B star James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy)

At first, the tour with Thunder Early seems like a dream come true, but when Curtis decides to turn the three women into their own band and no longer backup singers, tensions begin to rise between the women. Suddenly, Effie is singing backup to Deena Jones' (Beyonce Knowles) lead, and everyone knows it shouldn't be. Desperate to get her moment to shine, Effie begins to do anything to fight her way to the top, no matter the cost.

I love musicals. I’ve been raised around them my whole life, and I am always eager to see what film directors will do to adapt big and complicated productions such as a broadway show and translate it to the screen. Usually, a tactic for this is to change the vocals ever so slightly so that the singers are more accessible to a main stream film audience and not just to the viewers whose ears are used to that big broadway sound. In this respect, I think Dreamgirls did very well. The music in Dreamgirls is primarily sung in a setting where the characters are on a stage and performing, so it was a little jarring when they began to sing to explain the plot and were not doing an actual performance. The music they were singing was wonderful, but didn't seem to flow between the stage and off stage songs with the ease that it might have had in a live performance.

Casting wise, Beyoncé was obviously known to the everyday audience member, and therefore was an easy way to draw people to the film. Her voice is famously impressive, and she clearly had no troubles belting out the notes given to her. Her character has to go from Motown to disco, and she hits every mark. Jennifer Hudson had what I would consider a slightly more challenging task. Her character has the show stopping song, the one that anyone familiar with the musical would be waiting for. Hudson knocks the song out of the park, but keeps it reigned in just ever so slightly to be able to keep it within the confines of a film and not go too far to the point of Broadway. Overall, an incredibly impressive feat well deserving of her Oscar win.

As great as the music in Dreamgirls was, what I found a bit odd was the pacing. The film itself is honestly probably a bit too long, yet the timeline of the plot feels rushed. I’ve never really seen a movie like this where I feel the story appears quite lengthy, but I’m still slightly confused by the order of events because they go by so fast. I think what could have attributed to this oddity would be how much information and time they were attempting to put into the movie. The characters go through a constant series of montages, taking you through the years of the girl group, stopping every year or two to elaborate on what’s happening in their lives at that present time. When they do put the brakes on to spread out the characters’ stories and conflicts, it’s still a bit muddy at times with what is fully going on. Not to say it’s completely confusing, just feels like there some information missing, which you wouldn’t expect from a movie that is over two hours long. Sometimes it’s hard to translate certain elements of the stage to the screen, and the length of an average broadway show is one of those things that seems to have been a slight struggle for Dreamgirls.

I feel like I have probably put off watching this movie for too long, especially given my love for musicals. I truly enjoyed the performances, music, and general storyline, and I would say the film as a whole is a success. It’s shiny, stylish, and powerful, and after watching it I immediately began listening to the soundtrack, which means it most definitely accomplished its goal.

2007 Winner Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role- Jennifer Hudson

2007 Winner Best Achievement in Sound Mixing- Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, and Willie D. Burton