DREAMGIRLS / Bill Condon (2006)

January 8th, 2007 by Scott Marks

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Dreamgirls (2006)

Directed by: Bill Condon

Written by: Bill Condon, Tom Eyen

Genres: Drama, Musical

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Keith Robinson, Sharon Leal, Hinton Battle, Mariah I. Wilson, Yvette Cason, Ken Page, Ralph Louis Harris, Michael-Leon Wooley, Loretta Devine

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Rating:

The two worst things to happen to popular music over the past 30 years were Andrew Lloyd Weber’s dull talk-singing and the tonsil stretching caterwauls emanating from American Idol.

Dreamgirls is an impious merger of the two, borne in hell and condemned for eternity to home video.

Speaking of eternity, what should have been forever took only 25 years to make it to the screen. This Supreme(s) Broadway smash was originally designed with Nell Carter in mind, but the part eventually went to Jennifer Holiday. In the late-80s, talk was underway about a film version to showcase egomaniacal songbird Whitney Houston. According to Wikipedia, “The production ran into problems when Houston wanted to sing both Deena and Effie’s songs (particularly And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going).”

In 1994, DreamWorks planned an adaptation starring Fugees lead singer Lauryn Hill. After Why Do Fools Fall in Lovetanked at the box office, the studio gave up hope on producing another 60s music biopic.

Bill Condon, the man guilty of writing the heinous Chicago, sold the producers on his vision to can the musical for the ages. In Gods and Monsters, writer/director Condon told us nothing more than the man behind Universal’s first two Frankenstein pictures was gay. In Dreamgirls, Condon tells us nothing. His attempts to “open up” the play by inserting the King assassination and the Civil Rights Movement are out of place to the point of being downright contemptible.

Jamie Foxx is terrible. How did this preening somnambulator ever win an Oscar®? Eddie Murphy might have been funny had I never seen his James Brown shtick on SNL. As an actress, Beyonce did a convincing job of losing weight for the role.

Okay, I’ll admit it. Jennifer Hudson is magnificent and even though I cannot recall one fetid lyric, her force and screen presence burn brightly. She’s not enough. Once again, I strongly urge that you wait for this to come out on DVD and not rent it.

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