Midway through Dreamgirls, American Idol rabble-rouser Jennifer Hudson stomps, screams and wails through a rendition of And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going that brings down the house.
And as the screen fades to black, Dreamgirls is an exuberant and powerful musical.
Grab that feeling and leave.
Dreamgirls, after all, is little more than a thinly disguised version of the Diana Ross and the Supremes story, and for much of its first half it succeeds in rising above that. But as the second act begins, it's a fall from grace of bizarre symmetry.
When it opens, Dreamgirls plunges into the underground R&B/soul scene of the early 1960s with the same flashy, rapid-fire visual style that Chicago scribe Bill Condon also brings here as the film's writer and director. The movie follows a fledgling group of female singers who call themselves The Dreamettes ' Effie (Hudson), Deena (Beyonce Knowles) and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) ' looking for their big break. When that break comes in the form of singing backup for the James Brown-esque Jimmy Early (Eddie Murphy), the backstabbing, man-stealing and steady rise to the top begin.
Heavy on musical sequences, Dreamgirls is hardly a showcase for its actors, but Hudson and Murphy rise above the stock roles they're given. And just as early Oscar buzz has indicated, Hudson is the movie's rock, while Murphy has a wild presence in the film's on-stage sequences that should breathe life into his of-late lackluster career.
But a few standout performances can't overcome a deadly second hour. The songs that propelled much of the first act turn dull and glum, and Condon draws out a series of VH1 Behind the Music plot staples ' embezzling, drugs and bad hair ' to excruciating length.
Dreamgirls has an interesting story to tell, all about the fight of black artists to keep their music from being Paul Anka-fied, but it sacrifices its responsibility as a musical to tell it, just like Chris Columbus' 2005 trainwreck adaptation of Rent. Like Rent, once again, it probably was better left on Broadway.
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Matt Burns
