DREAMGIRLS

Written and Directed by Bill Condon
CAST: Jaime Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Danny Glover

So many plays and musicals lose so much when they are transferred to the screen that it is an enormous pleasure when they adapt them to film and get it right. And make no mistake about it, DREAMGIRLS gets it right.

Condon has taken the approach that this is a story with music rather than a full on musical. He uses the songs often as bridges to show character detail, environmental detail and plot turns that always keep the focus on the story, the characters and their dilemmas. He particularly shines with the use of reaction shots which perfectly focus in on the conflict and raise the tension and stakes in a scene. Condon previously did excellent work writing and directing GODS AND MONSTERS and KINSEY. But nothing in those films prepared us for the incredibly true hand he has used in guiding DREAMGIRLS to the screen.

The first half of DREAMGIRLS excites on so many levels. It draws us into the world of Black entertainers in the late 1950s-early 1960s. It reflects the characters via what is happening in the U.S.A. at that time without hitting us over the head with didactic platitudes. It’s just enough to give the time and place an edge that deepens all aspects of the story. We see the characters’ careers and the music business grow with subtle changes. We also are set up to see the potential cracks appearing that can bring it all down.

Every performance in the film radiates. Jaime Foxx brings many levels to a part that isn’t fleshed out terribly well. Anika Noni Rose draws you into her excitement at growing up and falling in love and her frustrations that she hits along the way. Eddie Murphy is a revelation as James “Thunder” Early. Early could have easily been planned as a caricature but Murphy adds shadings and details that makes his performance one of the best of the year and one that could compete in any year. Beyoncé Knowles could become one of our great film stars if she can find the right vehicles to showcase her incredibly diverse talents. She makes every moment count in a role that is undefined in the writing. Jennifer Hudson is every bit as good as you have heard as Effie. She’ll excite you with her voice, make you laugh or bristle at her attitude and tear your heart out when she is confronted with the loss of her friends and the rise of her demons. It’s a performance that will probably become legendary.

As good as the film is, it is not without its problems. The book to DREAMGIRLS has always been flawed. The first half works beautifully as it focuses on Effie, the big voiced, big bodied singer who is demoted from lead singer to backup and finally out of the group totally. Effie is beautifully drawn, multi-faceted and tremendously sympathetic in spite of her flaws. However, she makes her exit halfway through the story. Once Effie is gone, there is no one we can truly empathize with to go through the rest of the story. Both the play and the film ask us to transfer our empathy to Deena, the Diana Ross-like character who is made lead singer over Effie. Beyoncé Knowles does a fantastic job trying to bring Deena to life. However, Deena is the least developed character in DREAMGIRLS. Ms. Knowles considerable talents aren’t given a chance to shine in any particular way. The character starts out as a “good girl” and barely goes beyond that in spite of a huge career where she is a pop music goddess. The second half of DREAMGIRLS is entertaining but it doesn’t have the depth and focus of the first half. It does try to focus on Effie and keep her involved in the film. It is more successful at this than the stage version. However, it still feels as though the leading lady has been ripped from the drama and we are now in a totally different story.

However, DREAMGIRLS is never less than entertaining and, in the first half, brilliant. The visual elements are all top notch and capture the times, the places and the people beautifully. Condon and his cinematographer, Tobias A. Schliessler, have the camera always in the right place at the right time to convey the heart of a scene as well as its mood. The highest praise I think we can give them is that the film, in every way, looks as if it was conceived as a film, not as the filming of a stage musical.

With DREAMGIRLS’ success on the heels of CHICAGO’s, perhaps we will once again see the film musical regularly appear at our cineplexes. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that HAIRSPRAY can follow up their achievements critically and box-office wise when it’s released. That might help keep the musical genre alive a bit longer.