Dreamgirls

Newsweek David Ansen

The movie belongs to Hudson as the proud, self-destructive Effie. When she's center stage, Dreamgirls transports you to movie musical heaven.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Hudson, taking over the role of Effie played on stage by Jennifer Holliday, is in charge of Dreamgirls from her opening scene, blowing away Grammy-winner Beyoncé Knowles, Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx and anyone else who gets in her way.

The New Yorker David Denby

The sigh you will hear across the country in the next few weeks is the sound of a gratified audience: a great movie musical has been made at last.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Dreamgirls is one of the best movie musicals in memory.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The ovation that Hudson wins from the movie's audience is one of those miraculous moments when a performer's artistry breaks through the screen and makes you feel part of a live audience. I haven't experienced anything like it since Barbra Streisand sang "My Man" at the end of her astonishing debut in Funny Girl.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Though it seems long and its pace occasionally lags, it certainly struck me as a well-mounted, gloriously eye-filling and often exhilarating entertainment that brings back some of the delicious excitement of the great movie musicals.

Chicago Reader Albert Williams

Elegant, unabashedly theatrical, and packed with lush concert scenes and period-perfect costumes.

Slate Dana Stevens

For all its flaws, Dreamgirls is what this holiday season needs. It's a big, fat, luscious movie in which no one is tortured, murdered, or mutilated (honestly, how many recent films can you say that about?).

Variety David Rooney

Finally. After "The Phantom of the Opera," "Rent" and "The Producers" botched the transfer from stage to screen, Dreamgirls gets it right. Bill Condon's adaptation of the 1981 show about a Motown trio's climb to crossover stardom pulls off the fundamental double-act those three musical pics all missed: It stays true to the source material while standing on its own as a fully reimagined movie.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Dreamgirls is the entire musical package, a triumph of old school on-screen glamour, and we wouldn't want it any other way.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Even when it feels packaged like a holiday entertainment that aims to please, watching Dreamgirls is like being on cloud nine.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Bill Condon's screen adaptation of the 1981 Broadway sensation is, if possible, as dazzling and energizing as its source.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Murphy is a revelation as James, and what American Idol castoff Hudson lacks in technical acting craft she makes up for in raw energy and a voice that could melt the rhinestones off a beauty queen. To complain that Beyonce pales by comparison is to fault her for nailing the essence of the infinitely malleable Deena.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Dreamgirls is good and at times it touches greatness.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

This baby dazzles like nothing else anywhere.

Premiere Stephen Saito

The reason to see Dreamgirls is what hasn't been advertised - a film that in spite of its shiny veneer actually hits all the high notes through its underlying rawness.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Dreamgirls is the rare movie musical with real rapture in it.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The film is like a lot like Effie: It occasionally vexes or disappoints, but -- I am telling you -- it dazzles.

Empire Angie Errigo

Ardent, accomplished, overwhelmingly emotional, with something to say and a dream cast saying it in song. Bravo.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

If there is a disappointment, it is this: The anticipation may have exceeded the realization. It's a damn good commercial movie, but it is not the film that will revive the musical or win over the world.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Condon grasps what has eluded most of his contemporaries: Anyone can give us the old razzle-dazzle, but what makes a movie musical soar is nothing more or less than the quiet exhilaration of two individuals on the screen, enraptured by song.

Time Richard Corliss/Richard Schickel

It's great to see a movie musical with a smart sense of the genre. All Dreamgirls lacks is the amazing energy and passion of the original.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Dreamgirls may be good enough to win the Oscar for Best Picture - great costumes, sets and choreography help - but despite stellar work by erstwhile "American Idol" contestant Hudson and Murphy, it's far from a great picture.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Indeed, without Hudson's magic, without that extra feeling that comes from seeing the launch of something extraordinary, Dreamgirls might have been a break-even affair. The film has strong roles, good actors and a compelling story that takes place over the course of 10 or 15 years. But it has, with only a couple of exceptions, a pedestrian score that sounds like generic show-music schlock and lyrics that are not distinctive.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

This glitzy, infectious and unusually heartfelt musical doesn't always hang together as a satisfying narrative -- too many characters compete for too little screen time -- but its pleasures are numerous enough to override its flaws.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Jennifer Hudson is the heart and soul of Dreamgirls. When she's on the screen, the movie shines. When she's not, the whole endeavor suffers.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Dreamgirls is performed, shot, edited and packaged like a coming-attractions trailer for itself. Ordinarily that would be enough to sink a film straight off, unless you're a fan of "Moulin Rouge." But this one's a good time.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Without Hudson, Dreamgirls would be a whole lot less exciting. Knowles, the ostensible star, is rather bland, and Foxx, surprisingly, seems miscast. Murphy is wonderful, but that should be no surprise.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The film soars in the right places, especially when powerful newcomer Jennifer Hudson sings, and the charismatic supporting cast keeps it chugging forward.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

She's (Jennifer Hudson) the best part of the show by far, but the writer-director Bill Condon, who wrote the screenplay for "Chicago" four years ago, has done the original "Dreamgirls" proud without solving its dramatic problems.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The problem with “Dreamgirls” -- and it is not a small one -- lies in those songs, which are not just musically and lyrically pedestrian, but historically and idiomatically disastrous.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

I know I'm going to bring down the room by saying I think it's just okay. Well, Jennifer Hudson is more than okay.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's taken Dreamgirls 25 years and several false starts to get to the screen, so it's a shame to see what a rush job it feels like.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Dreamgirls is a better musical than "Chicago" or "Rent," but then, that isn't really saying much.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Even with Hudson's triumphant arrival and an overall fizzy mood of singing, dancing, pop nostalgia and camp, Dreamgirls is an uneven crowd pleaser.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

There's so little love to be found in Dreamgirls. It's a product that promises magic, and yet gives us nothing to live on.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

It's the ultimate pop-culture sacrilege: a movie about soul music that has no soul.