Review: ‘Dreamgirls’ engages with music, high-profile cast

Directed by: Bill Condon

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Keith Robinson, Hinton Battle, Sharon Leal, Anika Noni Rose, Danny Glover

Rated: PG-13

There’s a distinction between “movies with/about music” and outright “musicals.”

As a fan and student of pop music, the former category is one I’ve always enjoyed. Films like “That Thing You Do,” “The Doors” and “Grace of My Heart” were fictional (or semi-fictional) accounts set in a musical milieu. The music itself was an integral part of the overall story.

Musicals, on the other hand, have that annoying nuance of letting (demanding) the actors break into song when they could merely be using dialogue as an expository device. With a few exceptions, musicals have always annoyed me to the point of distraction. Even “hip” musicals such as “West Side Story” seem tedious. Any real New York City gang would mop the floor of Manhattan with the poseurs in both the Sharks and the Jets.

It’s not the intent of this preface to change anyone’s mind. It’s merely an informational disclaimer.

Writer/director Bill Condon has an interesting body of work. He directed “Gods and Monsters,” the powerful biopic about James Whale, the director who made the original “Frankenstein.” Ian McKellen as Whale conveyed a sense of tormented genius, one who was manipulating a relatively new medium while also trying to fit in as a gay man to the just as new Hollywood social scene.

In the somewhat related (obtusely, but related still) 2004 film “Kinsey,” Condon presented the life and life’s work of Alfred Kinsey. Kinsey’s 1948 book, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," was one of the first recorded works that saw science address sexual behavior. The book seems rather passé in 2007, but at the time it caused quite a few eyebrows to be raised. Condon’s film captures the moment nicely.

And then Condon wrote the screenplay for, but didn’t direct, the film version of “Chicago.” It was during that project he decided to bring “Dreamgirls,” the 1981 Broadway hit, to the screen.

The story and characters are an amalgam of many diverse components, and most people will assume it’s a biography of The Supremes and their relationship with Motown Records and its founder, Berry Gordy Jr. But the “Dreamgirls” screenplay is much like “Grace of My Heart,” which used broad brushstrokes to invoke pop music legends Carole King and a character that was equal parts Phil Spector and Brian Wilson. None of it was true, but it made for compelling pop music fiction.

In “Dreamgirls” Jamie Foxx is the mogul behind a fledgling Detroit-based record company. After hearing the trio of young girls called “The Dreams” at a local talent show, he offers them a gig backing up the soul singer James “Thunder” Early. Eddie Murphy, as Early, may have found the role of his career. On “Saturday Night Live” he did a great James Brown shtick, and the character in “Dreamgirls” is part Brown (who wasn’t a Motown artist), part Jackie Wilson and, in the last act, a great deal of Marvin Gaye during his classic “What’s Goin’ On” period.

In much the same way that Gordy shifted the focus of the Supremes from original lead vocalist Flo Ballard to the thinner, more commercial Diana Ross, Foxx’s Curtis Taylor, Jr. decides to move Effie White from lead singer to backup gal. Effie is clearly the most gifted singer in the group but she’s a bit too heavy and maybe a bit too “black.” To make matters more painful for the young woman, she has also been having an affair with Taylor.

Stepping into the lead spot is Deena Jones, who looks exactly like Beyoncé Knowles (who plays her.) Deena has a fine voice and commercially the restructuring makes sense. But clearly, looking like Beyoncé is what matters most.

The back-story here is interesting as well. Jennifer Hudson, 25, who has a pop/soul/R&B voice that can hold its own with anyone’s, plays Effie. Hudson caused a stir when – for reasons many critics and viewers still can’t understand – she failed to win top honors on TV’s “American Idol.” Hudson can forget TV. Her performance in “Dreamgirls,” with its very high-profile cast, is the showstopper. The centerpiece song of the Broadway production has always been "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going.” When Hudson sings the tune here, she leaves no doubt that as an actress and singer, she is here to stay.

I was engaged with the fictional biography aspect of the film and, given the fact that no Broadway team can be faulted for not coming up with songs as good as those from the Motown stable, most of the film’s music is great. It’s when “Dreamgirls” gets into the “musical” mode – people singing rather than talking to each other – that I became less than enthusiastic.

But fans of pop music, the history of one of the 20th century’s most influential record companies and indeed, those who don’t mind a full-fledged musical, will find a lot to like in “Dreamgirls.”

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]