Dreamgirls made big news on Broadway 25 years ago, and its film version emerged in the last weeks of the year as one of the best movies of 2006. Although released too late to make most critics’ Best of Year lists, it wasn’t tardy enough to be ignored by the Golden Globe Awards. It won three of those, and has since been nominated for eight Academy Awards.

Though you’re apparently supposed to deny it as soon as you say it, the story is based on the rise to fame of Diana Ross and the Supremes, the female trio that spun out hit after hit for Detroit label Motown Records in the 1960s. By changing their style and bridging the gap between the white and black pop audiences, the Supremes helped pave the way for the subsequent universal acceptance of African-American musicians. In this movie they’re first called the Dreamettes, then the Dreams, and their story parallels the progress of the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s.

The Dreams are originally Deena Jones (Beyoncé Knowles), Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose), and Effie (Jennifer Hudson), the brassy and confident lead singer. When they enter a talent contest, the girls run into smooth, foxy Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Jamie Foxx, in a role based on Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr.), who is managing the James Brown-like James "Thunder" Early (Eddie Murphy), a headline performer busy destroying himself with drugs and fast living. When Effie’s brother writes "Cadillac Car" for the Dreams, it flops; when the song is later covered by an antiseptic white group, it goes Top 40. Taylor, whose prime objective is to make money, sees that he must turn the Dreams into a crossover group that can bring in bigger crowds and bigger bucks. He kicks Effie out of the group, makes Deena the lead, and hires a new backup singer to keep the group as a trio. Effie is distraught, especially because, unknown to Taylor, she is carrying his child. Deena becomes Taylor’s wife and, effectively, his servant. He runs her life.

Along the way we see the civil rights struggle, including the rioting in Detroit, as well as the speeches and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., but writer-director Bill Condon is never preachy about these events that shape the characters’ artistic destinies. Those events make a point simply because they happen.

There is a lot of music in Dreamgirls. In addition to the songs themselves, there is something like operatic recitative, as the actors sing lines that move the story along. The development of the various characters is excellent -- you really get a feel for each of them. You might like some, hate some, and change your mind about others, but you feel them as real people, even as Dreamgirls teeters dangerously close to caricature while never crossing that line. The film has an undeniable feeling of sincerity throughout.

All of the actors are fine, but I have to single out Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy. Hudson is simply an enormous talent. She can act the lines off a page, and can she ever sing! Her big number, "And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going," which she sings when Taylor kicks her out of the Dreams, is the most riveting one-woman declaration since Ethel Merman belted out her soliloquy in Gypsy. Murphy, who for the past ten years has depended on mugging and outrageous, mostly crude disguises, returns to fine acting here. His portrayal of James Early is tremendously moving and true, conveying Early’s comic surface while also finding his inner sadness. This subtle turn establishes a new direction Murphy should pursue.

The costumes and hairstyles pay tribute to Diana Ross and the Supremes -- there’s lots of sparkle and class -- and the camerawork keeps the audience involved and up close to the drama. The music is performed with gusto and finesse, providing many thrilling moments as the drama progresses.

I left the theater thinking that the 25-year wait to see this cast under this director was well worth it. Dreamgirls is grand entertainment with a sincere edge, and stuck with me long after I’d left the multiplex.

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