Dream Like

I did have one new Wednesday show planned to sample, the spy drama Undercovers. But since I also had plans tonight to play board games with friends, I won't be watching (or reviewing) that show until tomorrow.

So instead, a write-up of a movie I just watched -- the recent film musical Dreamgirls. It's about a fictionalized version of a group like Diana Ross and the Supremes breaking big while dealing with internal conflict and hardship. I had been aware that it was basically a musical, or like a musical, but not aware that it was actually an adaptation of a Broadway musical.

I actually found this to be one of the bigger strikes against the movie. I most certainly have nothing against musicals. (One -- Moulin Rouge -- is in my top 10 favorite movies.) But I find it a bit of an odd challenge to tell a story about music performance that is also a musical. This is the challenge that the TV series Glee has to surmount every week, and the fact that it's so successful most of the time is a real testament to the quality of that show.

For me, there's just a clash with the underlying conceit of the musical format. People burst into song unrealistically, and articulate their innermost emotion through songs. That's how it works. But when the story is about people who actually perform music, then the "bursting into song" might be entirely motivated by a realistic situation -- they're rehearsing, they're giving a concert, whatever. And the song they're singing might not get as truly at the heart of their character when it's motivated by some "real" reason and not part of the musical convention.

Put in a less roundabout way -- Dreamgirls is just over a two hour movie. And it isn't until a half hour into it that a character first sings a song in the musical style. Oh, there are three or four tunes before that, but they're part of entering a singing competition, learning how to sing backup for a new headline act, taking that act out on the road... all situations where characters would logically sing even if the movie was technically not a musical.

I hear some people talk of musicals and say they just can't get over people bursting into song for "no reason." And I've never understood the complaint until right now. Because after 30 minutes of "motivated singing," when that first true musical number comes along, I definitely had a moment of "wait, why is this guy singing right now?"

It also didn't help that it was around that time the plot began to fragment a bit too much. What starts as a unified tale of one group of young singers ends up split into three mostly separate plots: the leader of that group realizing how unhappy she is; the woman who was kicked out of the group suffering to make it on her own; and the washed-up James Brown ringer they all used to sing backup for trying to re-start his career. There's certainly a thematic connection in all this, but the plots never really intersect again after the moment they diverge.

But the movie also has a great strength on its side that overcomes a lot of these flaws: its cast. The acting in this movie is pretty phenomenal, both in song and not. The emotion is powerful and raw, and really moving. Jennifer Hudson proves worthy of the Oscar she won for the role. Her "big number" in the film, And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going, would be nearly as effective even without the context of the movie around it to set it up. Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, and Eddie Murphy are all excellent, as are the less well-known Anika Noni Rose and Sharon Leal. There are even a few cameos from members of the original Broadway musical cast.

Director Bill Condon sets up a good style for the movie, at times dipping his toe in the sort of theatricality used by Chicago (and, less effectively, by Nine), but also striking out and doing something different. He also adapted the screenplay, but not knowing the original play, I'm not sure I can offer any comment on that -- other than to repeat my wish that the movie had not waited to boldly declare itself an actual musical until 30 minutes in.

Overall, I'd give Dreamgirls a B-. There are better movie musicals, but this isn't a bad one.