Dreamgirls

So, I begin with the first film I saw in 2007, Dreamgirls.

The musical is a tricky storytelling medium to bring to film. Most musicals, especially recently, have failed to garner critical success, commercial success, or, in most cases, both. In my opinion, the main reason for this is that most musicals tend to be loaded with songs instead of focusing on the story and the characters. Music is an excellent way of emoting and showing feeling in an entertaining way, but it doesn't mean anything if there aren't characters we can invest in, or a story that is compelling. For example, think about action movies. The reason why Casino Royale worked, while Die Another Day didn't was because Casino Royale used action sequences to suppliment character and plot development. The movie is all about Bond and Vesper and the story. Now think about Die Another Day and try to remember the plot or anything interesting about the characters. Its the same way with musicals, they can be good, but only if the characters and story are there.

Which brings me to Dreamgirls, a film I was very excited to see, but that didn't live up to my hopes because it was a series of songs without a developing plot or characters to tie them together. Ostensibly, the film is about the Dreams, a Motown-style girl group who hit it big, but fall apart when one of them takes over. However, director Bill Condon is not particularly interested in telling that story. Instead, we get a series of extremely well-shot and well-performed songs, but no substance behind them.

The film begins entertainingly enough, focusing mainly on James Early (Eddie Murphy) and Effie White (Jennifer Hudson). Murphy gives the film's best performance, capturing both Early's charisma and manic nature early in the film, while also doing a great job of showing him as tired and desperate later. Hudson also does a great job with her character, and she has the film's emotional highlight, "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going"

The problem is that this highlight comes way too early, half-way through the film, leaving nowhere to go but down. After that the song the film rather abruptly shifts focus to Jamie Foxx's cardboard character (he's the evil, controlling manager!) and Beyonce Knowles' bland diva. By moving away from the two most interesting and well-acted characters to two extremely bland ones, Condon severely damaged the film and the result is that the second half is a tedious presentation of songs that feels more like the variety show that Foxx's character puts on than an actual movie. Additionally, because the film ditches Hudson so early, her character ends up feeling underdeveloped. The film was never going to recover from "And I'm Telling You," but it didn't have to curl up and die after it.

In the end, I thought Dreamgirls contained a few songs and excellent performances from Murphy and Hudson , but the second half was just too painful for me to fully recommed this movie.

C+