Jamie passion and passionfruit!

The film of the stage show inspired by the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes.  Directed by Bill Condon, it is certainly watchable, well-paced and has the music to boot.  I enjoyed the movie without regarding it as being the ‘great’ musical some critics have suggested it is.  In fact, reviewers seem to love or hate the film and my stance is probably somewhere in the middle.  The story is a rather simplistic battle between industry  - the Jamie Foxx character, Curtis Taylor and Deena Jones (Beyoncé) who do make it big despite selling out and the sheer talent of Effie White (Jennifer Hudson) and to a lesser extent Jimmy Early (Eddie Murphy) who are just not sanitised enough for the white crossover markets.  We get the message early on and from then it is really just a question of when Effie gets dumped and will she ever get redeemed?  Hudson is the star of this movie and she makes every bit of the showstopping song “And I’m telling you”.  When she is on stage, we care about the film and her character, the rest of the time it is a bit like going through the motions.  Some of the songs are forgettable, Beyoncé not surprisingly doesn’t have the presence to carry her role off and good though Foxx is, I got bored with hhis Machiavellian character.  Best thing I’ve seen Eddie Murphy do in a while and yet that too in the end falls a little flat in this musical that promises to soar and really only flaps a few wings.  Hudson is however a star and a revelation.

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