I saw Dreamgirls on Saturday, and left somewhat unfulfilled. I was terrified that that Eddie Murphy might turn into a man in a fat woman-suit, and play seveteen characters. I was relieved when he didn't ... but it wouldn't have made the movie any worse.
With so much talk of performances and awards I had at least decent expectations of the film. The cinematography was raw, shaky and seemed to take more cues from a made-for-tv movie rather than a cinematic presentation. The acting was dry, at best. Each character was a conglomeration of cliches from the tormented civil rights era. The film made a half-hearted attempt to draw social aspects into the plot. The half-hearted effort to tell an inspiring story fell short when no character engaged, inspired or brought about any credible emotional reactions. Jamie Fox played a very decent record executive, but fell short when the depth of the script limited him to cliches and moody glances. Jennifer Hudson never became more than a two-dimensional character, but she put so much of herself into the part it almost made me sad.
Two parts of Dreamgirls as a whole bother me. Producers, media and fans tout itself as a dazzling and inspiring musical. It falls short of dazzle and just spins like mobile of famous people above a society of drooling Americans looking for their next idol. Eighty million people can't be wrong? Yes. They can.
It also falls short of inspiring. It simply perpetuates widely mistaken values of determination to the point of selfishness. There was no moral of the story, aside from a third and rarely visited throughline of a drug problem that lead to death.
It wasn't a bad movie. The music was entertaining, the actors beautifully cast and the costumes tasteful. The writers should have spent as much time on character development as the producers spent hyping it around the country.
