Dreamgirls Schreamgirls

I took Caleb to see Dreamgirls last night. And as much as I love the musical, as much as I adore Beyonce (except for this weird obsession she has lately with holding her arm over her head in every single photo snap – I don’t know what happens to people when they become mega-famous but gees it happens quickly) as much as I adore glitz and glam, I just thought this was just complete Oscar hype.

Essentially I think the problem was that they left it too long to establish that this film was a musical. I know what you’re thinking: “Duh, Jen. Dreamgirls! You’re seeing a film about a singing trio, of COURSE it’s a musical!”

But no, you criticise too soon, dear people. For what I mean is that while there are plenty of rockin musical numbers in the film, it takes almost forty minutes until someone actually bursts into song mid-scene (as in, the song is part of the actual scene and not just them singing on-stage), meaning that you are quickly taken aback, like “What the hell’s happening? Oooooohhhhhh….it’s a musical…”

But by that stage it’s too late – breaking into song mid-scene just looks silly. And continues to just look silly. Seriously…when Beyonce and Jamie Foxx turned to each other for a musical heart-to-heart, people in the movie theatre started laughing. Even Caleb was laughing. Then Caleb was wriggling, yelling “Mummy, let’s go!”

I couldn’t help but agree.

So we did.

But for the waste of a movie ticket, I couldn’t help but walk out of that theatre feeling just a little cooler, knowing that my son, my 2-year-old son, is completely and utterly Oscar hype proof.

If only we could get some kindergardners on the Academy voting committee…