Dreamgirls (2006)

Release date: 2006-12-25
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Bill Condon
Production Co: DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures, Laurence Mark Productions
Genre: Drama, Music, Musical
Rating: 6.5/10
Length: 2h 10min

Storyline

Detroit, the early 1960s. Curtis Taylor, Jr., a car salesman, breaks into the music business with big dreams. He signs a trio of young women, the Dreamettes, gets them a job backing an R&B performer, James "Thunder" Early, establishes his own record label and starts wheeling and dealing. When Early flames out, Curtis makes the Dreamettes into headliners as the Dreams, but not before demoting their hefty big-voiced lead singer, Effie White, and putting the softer-voiced looker, Deena Jones, in front. Soon after, he fires Effie, sends her into a life of proud poverty, and takes Deena and the Dreams to the top. How long can Curtis stay there, and will Effie ever get her due?

Plot Keywords

price of fame, kiss, songwriter, montage, friend, cigarette smoking, father daughter relationship, pregnancy, love triangle, adultery, dancing, dancer, concert, song, based on stage musical, love, male female relationship, husband wife relationship, dressing room, prologue

Short Review

The energy is so high in sequences like this -- and there are lots of them -- that it almost doesn't matter that we've seen this story before, in Ray and other film biographies about the "heartbreak" of musical stardom.