This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 1:31 pm and is filed under D, Drama, Musicals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Starring: Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson,Danny Glover, Anika Noni Rose.
Director: Bill Condon
This is a high-energy musical film with the rare ability to keep moving seamlessly while the singers do their thing while staying in the context of the story rather than the add-on style of a traditional musical. Director Bill Condon showed a lot of creativity in steering this project to success. The acting talent is here, the performers ooze screen presence and the soundtrack is infectious, but, though I enjoyed it, the long story-telling songs became tiresome as they went on. For many, who loved Chicago and Moulin Rouge, this what they enjoy, but give me more story.
A trio of African-American female singers, Deena (Beyonce), Effie (Jennifer Hudson of American Idol fame) and Lorrell (Rose) are struggling for success in the 60s when they hook up with an established performer, Jimmy Early (Murphy) and an ambitious, aspiring producer, Curtis (Foxx) to find their way to the charts and all that success brings. Danny Glover lends his talents as Early’s manager. All of this is set in the changing world of the 1960s and I would have liked to have seen more done with that.
I didn’t see this one until video and had high expectations from its Oscar attention and from what others had told me. It easily surpassed those expectations at first, but the wall-to-wall music interfered with my enjoyment. This is a very good musical and worth seeing if this is a genre you enjoy. Be warned, if you don’t like 60s Motown sound, this one is not for you.
