Dreamgirls: Jennifer Hudson Becomes a Winner at Last

I was shocked when Jennifer Hudson was voted off American Idol in the spring of 2004. It wasn't that I minded that Fantasia Barrino and LaToya London were still left standing. Both were good singers. But how could Jennifer be voted off before George Huff? Before Diana DeGarmo? Before Jasmine Trias? And, in the name of my bleeding eardrums, how could she go before John Stevens? Now, justice has finally been served. Hudson was picked from a field of nearly 800 auditioners for the role of Effie White in Dreamgirls, and she gave an extraordinary performance that will almost certainly get her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and likely get her the Oscar itself.

An interesting thing about the movie, in an art imitates life imitates art kind of way, is that Effie White, much like Hudson herself in real life, is pushed aside while singers with far lesser talents are elevated above her.

Dreamgirls, based on a long-running Broadway musical, is the story of a group very much like the Supremes. We see the trio when they are first discovered at a talent show by the sleazy Curtis Taylor, played by Jamie Foxx. Jennifer Hudson's Effie White has a powerhouse voice; Anika Noni Rose's Lorrell Robinson is young and giggly; and Beyoncé Knowles' Deena Jones (the Diana Ross role) is beautiful.

When Curtis decides to try to market the group to white audiences, he replaces Effie with the prettier and blander Deena, even though everybody, including Deena herself, knows that Effie has the better voice by far.

Effie is understandably hurt and angry. Things get worse when Curtis dumps Effie as a lover in favor of (who else?) Deena, and then eventually fires Effie from the show altogether. To top it off, Effie is secretly pregnant with Curtis's child. All this culminates in Effie letting loose with the song "And I Am Telling You."

Everything you have heard about this song is true. I got chills up and down my spine while listening. The people in the audience I was in clapped at climactic moments throughout, and again at the end, as if this had been a live performance rather than a movie. Hudson dredges up so much emotion, and conveys it so powerfully, that this song -- reputed to have taken four days to film -- will shake you to the core. It's this song that will clinch the Oscar nomination, this song that will launch Hudson's lifelong career, this song that says "So what!" to American Idol. It's a song that shows that talent will find a way. At least in our dreams, and once in a while, as now, in reality too.

The second-best thing about Dreamgirls is Eddy Murphy, playing a James Brown type soul singer. I never knew Eddy Murphy could sing! But he can, very well, and oh, he can dance and he can act, and his performance as James Early, who can't be bent by Curtis though he can be broken, brings life to the screen every moment he appears.

The other performances are fine, though none stand out the way Hudson's and Murphy's do. The music is okay, but falls far short of real Motown songs. But Hudson and Murphy are enough to make this movie special. And it's a movie that will leave you feeling good, a movie where dreams really do come true in the end, both for Effie White and for Jennifer Hudson.