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For a man very confident with his sexuality, I freely admit that I adore the bellowing and catchy tunes of The Supremes. I love the distinctive Motown sound, with the perfect mix of drum and bass instrumentation, familiar melodic and chord structure, and the "call and response" singing style which originates in gospel music. The musical genre is disliked by me though and I feel such formulas for storytelling only work on the stage. Dreamgirls partially does its job however, delivering the powerful songs, strong performances and realistic directorial vision. Indeed, the film looks stunning, creating the seedy mystique of the backstage operations and showcasing the beauty of the stage and costumes. Nevertheless, the plot is nowhere to be seen and regardless of how good the songs are (Knowles and Hudson are fantastic), they are seemingly fillers, tying up barely passable dialogue with the "are we there yet?" bemusement the collective audience feel about the film's direction. Moreover, Condon expects the viewers to know the history of The Supremes and never provides a distinctive basis for a story other than Diana Ross imitation Deena, played by Knowles, becoming the lead singer of The Dreamettes and personally and creatively suffering as a result as she strives to star in motion pictures.
Obviously, one could believe that all similarities to The Supremes are "coincidental" like the promotional material makes out, but you would be very naive. At the conclusion, I was still awaiting more of a final act, hoping we would get to see the goings on after the trio's final show! Condon seems more concerned with illustrating how stars are made and broken, and you cannot really blame the Kinsey (2004) director for having a stab at originality and matter-of-factness. The blistering reconstruction of Ross's life though is interesting on the whole, with my only criticism being how the countless anguished and defiant anthems are overlong when the art of pure conversation would have sufficed in most cases. Hudson is excellent for a debutant and Knowles displays her dazzling beauty and the power of her showpiece pipes for even genre-haters to respect. Jamie Foxx is average as the ruthless entrepreneur Curtis Taylor Jnr. and never possesses the raw ambition needed for an African-American promoter to gain such massive exposure in the 1960s. Also, Eddie Murphy's Jimmy "Thunder" Early is begging to be broken free from his leash. Murphy's performance is a serious turn for the comedy genius, and he even gets to drop his trousers on stage in sheer Murphy trademark craziness. However, like the film itself, Condon never treats us to the utmost quality and strengths we know his great cast can deliver.
The summary
Like many music stars, Dreamgirls needs a boost of high octane substance to push it further towards the "X/it" factor. A decent outing with energy and talent to burn though.
