Take a step back to the 1960's, where the hair is big, the entertainment is booming and the voices are loud. Dream Girls captures the struggle of three female vocalist who want to make it big, but have to make sacrifices along the way while burning bridges in the process.
Heartbreak, the struggle, addiction and some powerful women make this movie, Dream Girls a great movie. This is a star-studded line up that brings over two hours of amazing music and a deep story line about the life in show business for African Americans in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The story begins with a group of incredible female vocalist called the Dreamettes take the stage in a packed house. Lead by Effie White, played by Jennifer Hudson, the Dreamettes score a gig singing back up to a flamboyant soul artist named James ‘Thunder’ Early. Early is a charismatic womanizer with an addiction to the spotlight, among other things. Eddie Murphy plays Early perfectly and truly embodies the spirit of the time of a true showman in the entertainment industry.
Along with Effie, her co-star is a rather shy but excited young Dreamette named Deena Jones, played by the one and only, Beyoncé Knowles. This line up sounds pretty good so far, right? They are managed by a man who has a vision, who is persuasive but also extremely cunning and helps push them into stardom. Jamie Foxx plays Curtis Taylor Jr., manager of the Dreamettes and one conniving businessman. Throughout the movie, the group has to over come conflicts such as discrimination, the stealing of music and major personality issues. Taylor has a master plan on making the singers a household name and switch over from the R&B charts to the pop charts, while becoming a mogul himself in the process. The group faces adversity from start to finish. It is the 1960’s so issues such as racism, sexism and a male dominated society play a key role in the film, making the main characters adjust and overcome.
Dream Girls is a musical and pretty damn good one at that. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the ultra talented voices of Jennifer, Beyoncé and Jamie Foxx. Eddie Murphy who plays Early surprisingly has a pretty soulful voice. Bill Condon who directed this movie did a great job in capturing the struggle these characters faced and turning their hardships into a nice piece of music. At times, it was a little cheesy listening to the characters argue in song, but it was still pretty incredible to see Jennifer Hudson use her talents to make her point.
The overall plot was quite interesting as well. In order for the singers to achieve their ultimate dreams of being famous, they have to sacrifice quite a bit. In the beginning of the story, Hudson is by far the most talented singer of the group, but Taylor knows that isn’t what the Pop charts and ultimately the white fans want to hear. Taylor makes a tough decision and puts Hudson aside in order to succeed. Overall, it is a great story about trials and tribulations, the adversity that these singers in the 1960’s had face and a great use of some extremely talented musicians. This was considered to be Hudson’s breakthrough performance as she ended up snagging and Academy Awards for best supporting actress in 2006.
I’m usually not a fan of musicals. It’s not really my cup of tea, but I was impressed with this movie. For starters, they had an amazing line up. I’m a huge Jamie Foxx fan so I was excited to see him in this role and believed he played his part extremely well. Secondly, I thought Hudson did an exceptional job playing Effie. She was really able to depict the struggles Effie had throughout the movie and she has a phenomenal voice, hitting any note she needed to. Last but not least, who doesn’t love Beyoncé? She was incredible from start to finish. It was neat to watch her character develop throughout the film from a somewhat shy backup singer, to a full-blown celebrity with a conscious.
I watched the directors cut of this film on DVD. It provided some never before scene footage and some extra songs from some of the cast including Hudson and Beyoncé. The package also included some incredible bonus material. My personal favorite was audition and screen testing that they use on Jennifer Hudson before actual filming took place. This tape also included a photo book with select song lyrics so the audience and fans could learn their favorite songs if they wanted too.
