Dreamgirls
It was so stinkin’ hot over the weekend that it was impossible to stay away from the movies, and since we already had free tickets in hand for Sunday’s screening of Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart, the Lou Reed biopic from 1998 (showing at the Chauvel, in Paddington, as part of the Sydney Festival), we headed out on Saturday afternoon for this must-see musical. Now I’ve found Dad’s theory regarding the transition of Broadway show to movie, that it should be accomplished within a year of the show’s close or the movie will suffer, to be reliable, but while Dreamgirls came in 1981 and went in 1985, whatever it took to bring this to the screen was worth waiting this long for. I didn’t see Chicago, the last movie touted as the revival of the movie musical, but I don’t care if I never do. From the first song, I was hooked, and that was before the Dreamettes took the stage and even before Eddie Murphy came out. Frankly, while every song and every performer in this movie is top notch, Eddie Murphy supplies the performance of his life and pretty nearly steals the show. He does it all, from James Brown to Marvin Gaye, and in his dramatic performance moments puts in an effort we’ve come to never expect him capable of. Yeah, Jamie Foxx is a good actor, but Murphy? Yeah, he is. Beyoncé Knowles transforms into Diana Ross so well it’s spooky, and Jennifer Hudson, well, for a girl who didn’t do well (if she didn’t do badly) in “American Idol,” it turns out she can act and sing. Not all the songs are brilliant – I mostly enjoyed the early stuff (and yes, the Dreams wouldn’t have toured China) but every song was used to good effect in driving the plot, both narratively and cinemagraphically, and the whole thing was immensely enjoyable.