The story itself is conventional, jealousy and backstabbing relationships in show-biz, but the semi-biographical hook and the up-and-downs of each characters career is compelling.
It's always a bit funny in musicals to hear one person comment about a just written song, 'that'g going to be a hit', when the song itself is not particularly memorable. Dreamgirls songs , save one, are not great, but they comment on the storyline in inventive ways.
And how nice for the filmmakers to know that the success or failure of the entire production rests on that one song. Thanks to lip-syncing, they may have spent days or weeks in the studio getting "And I Am Telling You, I'm Not Going" exactly right, cutting and splicing the best phrasings together. Then filmng that scene's arguing quartet leading to Jennifer Hudson's on screen dramatic performance. And putting it together into one emotionally explosive aria. They knew they had to get it right and they absolutely succeeded.
The fact that the entire cast and setting are all as carefully engineered as that song just adds to the total package. (And yes, it's bizarre that it didn't get a Best Picture nod.)
Posted by netrc at January 25, 2007 04:28 PM