Dreamgirls (2006)

A trio of black female soul singers cross over to the pop charts in the early 1960s, facing their own personal struggles along the way.

Director:

Bill Condon

Writers:

Bill Condon (screenplay), Tom Eyen (book)

Stars:

Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy

Won 2 Oscars. Another 66 wins & 68 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jamie Foxx	...	Curtis Taylor Jr.
Beyoncé Knowles	...	Deena Jones
Eddie Murphy	...	James 'Thunder' Early
Danny Glover	...	Marty Madison
Jennifer Hudson	...	Effie White
Anika Noni Rose	...	Lorrell Robinson
Keith Robinson	...	C.C. White
Sharon Leal	...	Michelle Morris
Hinton Battle	...	Wayne
Mariah Iman Wilson	...	Magic (as Mariah Wilson)
Yvette Cason	...	May
Ken Page	...	Max Washington
Ralph Louis Harris	...	M.C. (as Ralph Harris)
Michael-Leon Wooley	...	Tiny Joe Dixon
Loretta Devine	...	Jazz Singer

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?

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Plot Keywords:

singer | trio | 1960s | pop chart | fire | 

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Taglines:

All you have to do is dream.

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Genres:

Drama | Music | Musical

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Dreamworks [United States] Official site [Spain]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dreamgirls

Filming Locations:

Alexandria Hotel - 501 S. Spring Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,329,817 (UK) (2 February 2007)

Gross:

$103,338,338 (USA) (13 April 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Pictures, Laurence Mark Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Beyoncé Knowles auditioned in full costume and performed with choreography. She has said she considers this her first film as an actress.

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Goofs

During a 1965 press conference, a photographer uses a Nikon camera that was introduced in the late 1980s.

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Quotes

James 'Thunder' Early: [singing] Jimmy got, Jimmy got, Jimmy got SOUL!

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Crazy Credits

The film begins immediately after the distribution studio logos, with no opening titles/credits of any kind.

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Connections

Spoofed in Dance Flick (2009)

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Soundtracks

White Christmas
Written by Irving Berlin
Performed by Paul Rabjohns

User Reviews

What WERE they thinking?

Yes there are great performances here. Unfortunately, they happen in the context of a movie that doesn't seem to have a clue what it's doing. During the first 45-60 minutes of this all the music takes place as realistic performance. Suddenly, about an hour in, the characters who, until this point, had always spoken to each other, suddenly start singing to each other. To further confuse things, a little further in, out of nowhere, they actually do about 15 minutes of sung-through dialog, then seem to drop that idea and move on to other things, such as a number that begins in a jazz club with a drummer and two electric guitars suddenly turning into a fully orchestrated piece with a massive unseen string section. On top of all this inconsistency in how the music is used, is the composers' clear inability to actually write music in the style that is supposedly being portrayed. While the first couple of pieces do sort of mimic the 1950s Motown sound, the rest of the film is just (bad) Broadway show music. Then there's the pure silliness of snippets of a group doing a bad Jackson family imitation and Eddie Murphy morphing from Little Richard to James Brown to Lionel Richie. When he started channeling Stevie Wonder I couldn't help laughing out loud. This was clearly one of those films that make me appreciate how little time I have on earth and resent that I wasted two hours of it watching this film.