DreamGirls
starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Danny glover, Anika Noni Rose, Keith Robinson, Sharon Leal, Hinton Battle, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson
written and directed by Bill Condon
This is a good film. You’ll like it like I did. Its star is supposed to be Jennifer Hudson. She is a winner of that American TV talent show called American Idol - which I have never seen - and this is her debut film. Certainly she has a fantastic voice, although I don’t care for that Black American type of caterwauling, and she emotes extremely efficiently. Many will weep at the emotion of the songs.
In my opinion the focus of the movie is stolen by Eddie Murphy’s character, James Thunder Early. I guess Murphy did his own singing, and his performance is great and electrifying. I am attracted to the male singer more than the female group because I never cared for that Motown girl group choreography, like The Supremes, which is the model for the Dreams. Like so many films about pop music groups and solo stars, DreamGirls follows the rise and fall of a Detroitgirl group, exposing for us the unimaginable dysfunction that so many famous performers overcome by shear raw talent. Actually, many performers do not overcome their dysfunctions simply so much as they slowly, eventually succumb to them, but not before accomplishing great work. Think of other great films about musicians: The Doors, Great Balls of Fire, The Buddy Holly Story, Ray, Walk the Line, Sid and Nancy, Amadeus and so many more.
I think it is incredibly pathetic that instead of promoting the more socially utilitarian and admirably humanitarian dreams of being a doctor or nurse, teacher or engineer, scientist, mathematician or philosopher DreamGirlsand the American Idol TV show promote the shallow dream of aspiring to be a singer. Well, being an entertainer is a good thing, but it is not that good. Being a farmer or carpenter is much more important. The desire to be a famous pop singer is practically universal among 12-year-olds, but then people grow up. That’s America for you.