Dreamgirls (Music from the Motion Picture)

iTunes Review

Penning the Oscar-nominated script for Chicago helped net mercurial Hollywood filmmaker Bill Condon the plum assignment of adapting another modern Broadway smash, and he's delivered yet another increasingly rare Hollywood musical triumph, one powered by this infectious, soulful soundtrack. In a story inspired by the roller-coaster career of '60s Motown queens The Supremes, Beyonce Knowles makes the best of several star turns as Deena, the film's Diana Ross-inspired diva, while co-stars Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx handsomely channel their own previous pop-music ambitions into the Motown-savory "Patience" and gentle ballad "When I First Saw You," respectively. But it's America Idol stand-out Jennifer Hudson who not only one-ups original Broadway star Jennifer Holiday in the role of Effie, but steals the movie outright with what should be star-making performances of "I Am Changing" and the emotionally wrenching showstopper "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going." Hudson's muscular young soprano often reveals its traditional gospel-blues roots, yet she wields it with the masterful panache of a footlight-bred trouper. And while she doesn't get the star turns of Hudson or Knowles, Tony-winner Anika Noni Rose admirably does much of the soundtrack's heavy lifting as the long-suffering Lorrell.