Dreamgirls (2006)

Based loosely on the careers of 1960s and 70s Motown divas Diana Ross and the Supremes, Dreamgirls was entertaining at best, though mostly just long and predictable.

It’s a big-budget musical, so the costumes are really neat, as is the lighting. The movie is more than two hours long, with the first half chronicling the Dreamette’s rise to stardom, and the very, very long second half of the film showing the emotional breakdown of the characters and their lives. It’s a quintessential musical, and while I love musicals, if they’re not done right they can all seem the same. In the first half of the film, the singing is only done while the performers are actually performing to an audience on a stage, or if they’re in a recording studio. I loved that; it seemed organic, even though the songs themselves sounded nothing like what Motown really sounds like. The second half of the movie is when the singing as dialogue begins, and it was unoriginal.

The film had been in the works for more than 20 years, ever since the Broadway musical debuted in 1981. After the success of the movie Chicago, Dreamgirls was finally made, and with an all-star cast of Eddie Murphy, Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Danny Glover. Jaleel White, better known as Steve Urkel from the TV show Family Matters, even had a small role in the film.

The one part of the movie that I loved was Jennifer Hudson’s portrayal of Effie White, the overweight girl with the big personality and amazing, soulful voice who is ultimately cut from the group because she doesn’t fit the right image (light-skinned, thin girls with pop-star voices to attract white audiences). Her rendition of “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” was heart wrenching and quite frankly, the only thing that made this film worth watching. I wish I could sing with that much passion and soul. I am very glad she won the Oscar for her performance.

The Queen (2006)

I finally caught this film on DVD after trying unsuccessfully to see it in the movie theater. And frankly, I wish I had seen it in the theater. What I was really taken away by in this movie wasn't Helen Mirren's Academy Award-winning performance, but by the beautiful cinematography and grand scenic shots of Scotland. It took my breath away to see the rolling green hills and wide skies.

The film is mostly about the way the royal family publicly handled the death of Princess Diana. I had just turned 16 when Diana died, and don't remember most of the media hullabaloo. However, as a former journalist, I now understand how handling a crisis publicly can make or break you. Making the right speeches and sending out the right public relations statements at the right times and in the right places can cast a public official in a very nice light. And as this film delves into, while newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair was very forthcoming with his grief for the death of the “People's Princess,” the royal family was very far away physically and emotionally from the center of where the public came to mourn: Buckingham Palace in London.

I had trouble relating to the emotions displayed in the film. Mirren portrayed Queen Elizabeth as having a uniquely British emotional disposition. She kept her feelings to herself and held everything inside. She does her duty as Queen and she is strict about following the rules of the monarchy. The only time the Queen cries in the film is when she is alone, stranded in the middle of the hillside when her car breaks down.

Watching the movie was like watching a caricaturization of the real public people involved in the tragedy. Tony Blair as the hero, coming to bring the Queen into the modern ages of public relations. His wife as the wicked and mean anti-monarchist. The Queen's husband and the Queen's mother staunchly asserting the need to follow the rules of the monarchy. Prince Charles as a wimp, trying to buddy up to Tony Blair, so that he won't come off in a bad light. And the Queen, trying to maintain her dignity, yet unable to meet the changing desires of her subjects.

As historical fiction, the film did a good job of setting the scene and showing what these characters might have gone through at the time. It was an interesting way to revisit a historical event nearly a decade later.