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Dreamgirls
The fluidly executed Dreamgirls, a fictionalized musical about the growth of Motown Records and the experiences of one especially successful group of female singers, is a largely satisfying experience, but it has one major, significant flaw that prevents it from reaching the top of the charts. The Oscar-nominated Eddie Murphy was miscast, not because he does poorly in his role as another star on the label, but because he is too good in it. The 130-minute film is barely big enough to accommodate both Beyonce Knowles and Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, playing the two primary singers in the girl group, and Murphy's part ought to be subsidiary to those. It is readily apparent, however, that director Bill Condon could not resist what Murphy was achieving with his performance, both in his wicked imitation of various black performers on stage, and the depth of soul that he communicated in his scenes off stage, and so Murphy's part got built up with several scenes that are terrific, but do not include the actresses and have no business being in anything but a post-theatrical director's cut. The film is covering close to two decades in the lives of the characters anyway. Having to allocate time for the musical numbers, it is already precariously thin on character exploration and development, and the distraction Murphy creates is just more than it can cover. But that said, the 2006 film still gets by reasonably well on its glitz and pizzazz, rolling along from one sequence and dramatic turn to the next as if it were all part of the same piece of music. Taken from a popular Broadway show, most of the songs are mediocre, intended without flair to imitate Motown hits, but the numbers are staged and performed so fabulously that it doesn't matter. Knowles gets a little too buried in her wigs at times and perhaps does not finesse the changes her character undergoes as well as a better actress could-if that actress could sing like her-but she has enough presence to hold her own with Hudson. Hudson, however, is the real centerpiece of the movie, although the producers, the writer/director, the marketers and even the Oscars try to downplay that fact, and you feel the same kind of excitement watching her evolve in her part and deliver her numbers that you felt when Barbra Streisand was doing Funny Girl. The creators of that film, however, knew who their star was.Dreamgirls is being issued by DreamWorks Home Entertainment as a Widescreen title (UPC#097363478249, $30), letterboxed with an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The picture looks fabulous, with nary a glitch to the glitter. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound is fully orchestrated and dispersed, sustaining the atmosphere the film seeks to achieve. Giving you a taste of what a director's cut might have been like, there are 36 minutes of extended and deleted musical numbers, which also work as the ideal encore reprise of the film's musical highlights. A Beyonce music video is featured as well.
DreamWorks has also released a 2-Disc Showstopper Edition (UPC#097361235547, $40). The first platter is identical to the Widescreen release. The second platter contains a comprehensive 115-minute production documentary that goes over the creation of the original Broadway show and every aspect of its adaptation to the screen. There are also 21 minutes of additional outtakes from the documentary. In one of the outtakes, the lighting designers explain how meticulous they were in keeping to reality during an early sequence where the heroines are performing in an amateur contest on a small stage. It's interesting what Hollywood does and does not allow, because you expect that kind of absolute verisimilitude in the production design, and yet the sound mix, when they are singing on that stage, is all Twenty-First Century.
As is explained in the documentary, the primary musical numbers were substantially pre-planned, so that between insertions of carefully angled audition sequences, storyboards and other prep materials, along with pre-recorded music and temporary dialog tracks, Condon could play entire sequences from the film before he had shot a single roll of the actual movie. 36 minutes of those prepared segments are included on the DVD, as are 11 minutes of other, fairly impressive auditions, along with a minute-long behind-the-scenes shot that is presented in a 'hidden' menu option. Featured as well is a good collection of still frame materials, including production and costume designs, more storyboards, and the delightful make-believe album covers and concert posters used in the film.
May 1, 2007DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
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