DreamgirlsMovie Reviews

"Dreamgirls" poster art.

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Avg. Critic Score: 76 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 OK for kids 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 90
    Variety | David Rooney

    Finally. After "The Phantom of the Opera," "Rent" and "The Producers" botched the transfer from stage to screen, Dreamgirls gets it right. Bill Condon's adaptation of the 1981 show about a Motown trio's climb to crossover stardom pulls off the fundamental double-act those three musical pics all missed: It stays true to the source material while standing on its own as a fully reimagined movie. Read full review

  • 90
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    Dreamgirls is the entire musical package, a triumph of old school on-screen glamour, and we wouldn't want it any other way. Read full review

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    This baby dazzles like nothing else anywhere. Read full review

  • 83
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Dreamgirls is the rare movie musical with real rapture in it. Read full review

  • 80
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    If there is a disappointment, it is this: The anticipation may have exceeded the realization. It's a damn good commercial movie, but it is not the film that will revive the musical or win over the world. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Indeed, without Hudson's magic, without that extra feeling that comes from seeing the launch of something extraordinary, Dreamgirls might have been a break-even affair. The film has strong roles, good actors and a compelling story that takes place over the course of 10 or 15 years. But it has, with only a couple of exceptions, a pedestrian score that sounds like generic show-music schlock and lyrics that are not distinctive. Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Jennifer Hudson is the heart and soul of Dreamgirls. When she's on the screen, the movie shines. When she's not, the whole endeavor suffers. Read full review

  • 70
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    She's (Jennifer Hudson) the best part of the show by far, but the writer-director Bill Condon, who wrote the screenplay for "Chicago" four years ago, has done the original "Dreamgirls" proud without solving its dramatic problems. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    The problem with "Dreamgirls" -- and it is not a small one -- lies in those songs, which are not just musically and lyrically pedestrian, but historically and idiomatically disastrous. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    Even with Hudson's triumphant arrival and an overall fizzy mood of singing, dancing, pop nostalgia and camp, Dreamgirls is an uneven crowd pleaser. Read full review

View more reviews for Dreamgirls on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 13+ Broadway + Beyoncé = big, boomy musical fun.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that tweens and teens who like musicals, American Idol, and Beyoncé will be eager to see this much-hyped Broadway adaptation. Several scenes of drug abuse are used to symbolically link excessiveness, addiction, and depression in "show business." Images include snorting lines of cocaine and smoking marijuana. Characters also drink heavily (often to drunkenness and sometimes hidden from others), smoke cigarettes, argue loudly, and engage in a fight or two. Some relatively mild -- but quite colorful -- language (mostly, several uses of "s--t" and "hell").
  • Families can talk about the film's messages about the entertainment industry. How do the characters change when fame arrives? How does the movie link drug use with the difficulties of the music business?
The good stuff
  • message true-1 Positive messages: Rise, fall, and rise again of a girl group, as individuals and a unit; ambitious, naive, and eventually cynical though wiser, they lie and betray one another and rediscover hope and generosity in the end.
What to watch for
  • violence false-1 Violence: Characters argue vehemently; brief fighting.
  • sex false3 Sex: Characters appear in underwear and skimpy stage clothing; sexual seductions are made via song; very sensuous dancing and some suggestive lyrics (e.g., "We only have till dawn"); some kissing and embracing (in dramatic silhouette); child born out of wedlock.
  • language false3 Language: Language includes repeated uses of "s--t," a couple of "hell"s, a couple of angry, dramatic exclamations ("No f--kin' bulls--t!" and "You can't even take a s--t without me wiping your ass"); period use of "negro."
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: To indicate the dangers of the "entertainment industry," the film shows lots of cigar/cigarette smoking, drinking (hard liquor at parties, sometimes from hidden flasks, suggesting addiction, and often to the point of drunkenness), and taking drugs (marijuana, cocaine).
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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