Dreamgirls I am not going to lie to you; I nearly walked out on this movie about halfway through. I did have the impulse. I was really bored. I didn't though, and I was glad I didn't. I really enjoyed watching Eddie Murphy in this movie. I am glad, now don't hit me, that Dreamgirls did not get a nod for a best picture nomination at the Oscars this year. I do not think it was even close to the caliber of the other pictures in that category. Just because it happens to be a musical is not a good reason to nominate it for best picture.
The movie was based on the musical Dreamgirls, though there were some new songs added. The movie was directed and the screenplay was written by Bill Condon, who also directed the interesting Kinsey and the quirky Gods and Monsters.
Dreamgirls does capture quite well the feel of a Broadway musical, but I did not necessarily find this to be a good thing. A musical and a movie are two completely different mediums. The list of movie musicals that I can stand to watch more than once is very short, and include Oliver and West Side Story. If you are going to have a musical, the first thing you have to have is great music, and this is where I find many of the musicals to fall short. The music for Oliver is very enchanting and fits the plot line like a glove. The music of Oliver can stand on it's own two feet, with or without the plot (of course having Carol Reed direct did not hurt any). The plot of Dreamgirls has to do with a fictionalized version of the Supremes history with a little Aretha Franklin and James Brown thrown in for good measure. The music not only includes the singing for the various records and TV appearances, but the characters also break out into song in the middle of a regular conversation. Every time this happened I winced. It did not seem to flow naturally from the story which is always a tricky proposition in a movie musical.
The picture looks great, and the film is well acted, with a huge nod to Eddie Murphy. I am very familiar with the music of this era, and the music in Dreamgirls did not stick with me in anyway. I kept thinking to myself that I would have loved to hear just two seconds of "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart" (or "Nowhere to Run" for that matter), which would have blown away any music that was in this movie. The Underdogs, Harvey Mason Jr. and Damon Thomas, updated the music for the movie. I was not impressed. It sounded like the music had been run through a blender, when there is nothing wrong with the original Motown sound that the musical's basic plot line was leaning on. I think in Dreamgirls a leaner meaner grittier approach would have been beneficial to the era portrayed in this movie. I am not sure that these particular songs would be worth all that trouble. I was being served a warmed over TV dinner. I longed for the scene in Rattle and Hum when U2 is trying to teach BB King a new song. Dreamgirls is very nice and neat and boring. Dramatically there are a lot of different story lines going on at the same time which robs the movie of most of its punch. I am sure there are people that think Dreamgirls got robbed by not being included in the Best Picture category, but I am not one of them. There were no real surprises in the movies plot; I already knew the storyline from the Supremes history (the part that isn't from the Supremes is pretty clichéd), and the music was not good enough to pull me in.
You can write James Harper at movielover77061@yahoo.com |
