Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls
DreamWorks and Paramount
December 25, 2006
Musical, Historical Drama
DVD
C+

Bill Condon wrote and directed this award-winning adaptation of the Broadway hit.  I feel like, despite the acclaim, there's a dazzling movie trapped in a not bad one.  I'm not really sure what the issue(s) I have are about it, but I think it's that the operatic and soap-operatic elements don't really jell with the more realistic, human moments.  Like the clash within the movie between "soul" and "glitz."  Note that while I could see dashes of James Brown and Little Richard in then-45-year-old Murphy's performance, it also reminded me some of the cocky twentysomething Eddie of the 1980s.