Dreamgirls
Grade: C

Teaser trailers for Dreamgirls hit the screen before production even started. And for months Hollywood insiders have been saying that Bill Condon's adaptation of the 1982 Broadway musical is a frontrunner in this year's Oscar race. Pretty good publicity for a movie that no one had even seen yet.

Well, last night Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures unveiled their precious baby with preview screenings in L.A., San Francisco, Portland and other cities. Some critics are already creaming in their jeans. Tom O'Neil of The LA Times writes:

"DREAMGIRLS IS A DREAM COME TRUE - A PERFECT FILM"
Technically, we journos aren't permitted to review the film yet, so I won't go into much detail, but it would be negligent not to report on what happened tonight at the first media screening of "Dreamgirls" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills.
Bill Condon and crew blasted the roof off the joint. We now, officially, have a best picture frontrunner and one that's going to be tough to beat.
I eavesdropped on lots of conversations out in the lobby afterward and everybody was raving, gushing, shaking, cheering. Clearly, "Dreamgirls" is a dream come true as a film production. It transforms a Broadway classic into a movie masterpiece. In fact, it's even better than its stage original.

Dream on, Tom. I never saw the Broadway show, so I have no way of saying how the movie compares to the stage version. But I can say - despite my high hopes for an electrifying musical like Chicago - that Dreamgirls left me completely un-jazzed. It has some glossy and inspired moments, but for the most part it's a bunch of sappy pop songs (there are a few good numbers, to be fair) swimming in a corny and poorly developed story.

The plot follows the ups and downs of three black singers from Detroit (Beyonce, Anika Noni Rose and Jennifer Hudson of American Idol fame). After singing backup for a ladies' man played by Eddie Murphy, they get their own act under the divisive condition that beautiful Beyonce replaces Hudson, who is an overweight loudmouth.

Expect an Oscar nomination for Hudson, who has an undeniably commanding presence but no command of the concept of subtlety.

Dreamgirls hits NYC and LA on December 15, and then opens nationwide on Christmas Day.