Monday, June 8, 2015

Tears of a Clown Blogathon: Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls


A few weeks ago, I announced the Tears of a Clown Blogathon. If you take a look up at my handy-dandy ticker, you'll see that the deadline to enter has already passed. Yet, here we are. Thanks to all of you that have already posted an entry. I'll close this out by the weekend with a posted acknowledging all of you. I'm not sure what the rest of you are waiting for. You've been warned about my plans, so get on it.

The reason this has gone on this far is because I wanted to do another entry. Wanted to post this a while back, but life. Anyhoo, better late than never there's no time like the present. Besides, it's a performance I feel is deserving of the wait. I'm talking about the work turned in by one of the all-time great stand-up comedians in his one and only dramatic role. I'm talking Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls.


Like lots of folks my age, I spent Saturday nights in the early 80s staying up later than my mother wanted me to catch each week's installment of Saturday Night Live. The unquestioned star of the show was a young Eddie Murphy. His characters are still some of the most iconic in the show's history. There was his version of Gumby, the James Brown imitations, and my personal favorite, Mr. Robinson. His first stand-up special, Delirious became something I committed to memory. Literally. I watched it I don't know how many times and owned the album version of it...on cassette. I could recite any part of it on command. My specialty was the drunken father portion of the routine. Of course, there were also his movies. Plenty of movies. He took hold of the box office with his very first cinematic outing, 48 Hrs. He followed up with titles like Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop (I and II), Eddie Murphy Raw, and Coming to America making him one of, if not the biggest box-office draw of the 80s.

Eddie back in the good ol' days.
By the time we get to 2006, Eddie had become a completely different performer. His stand-up career had long disappeared into his rear view mirror. Also gone were the irreverent comedies of his youth. In their place was a stream of family movies aimed at the tween and younger crowd. I suppose the Nutty Professor movies qualify as irreverent, but they weren't Eddie taking delight in being the comedic antihero he once was, saving the day while blatantly defying authority. In fact, the NP features him killing off the one character who dares to challenge the establishment, Buddy Love. The family friendly Professor Klump can only be the hero by destroying Buddy. Since both men are played by Eddie Murphy it has the effect of the more straight-laced Murphy symbolically ending the part of his career that made him famous. Those movies did something else, too. They reinforced the notion that he could really act. Whether you liked those films or not, you have to admire the skill in which he played multiple characters all with different voices, mannerisms, and ways of moving. He not only played both the hero and the villain, but almost the hero's entire family, as well. I've seen other performers do similar things. I've never seen anyone do it better. It's a talent he's been showing in pieces since his SNL day, but fully put it on display for the first time way back in 1988's Coming to America. These are all virtuoso performances that I would have been fully behind Oscar nominations for, Since the Academy doesn't do comedy, pretty much, that didn't even have a chance of happening.

Dreamgirls, to oversimplify, is a fictionalized version of the story of Motown. Many of the characters are clearly fictitious counterparts of the people who made that a legendary record label, such as Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, and Smokey Robinson. Then there's Murphy's character, Jimmy "Thunder" Early, a composite of Motown's own Marvin Gaye, plus James Brown and Jackie Wilson. Out of this, Murphy constructs a person who is, at once, arrogant, obnoxious, talented, yet deeply troubled. Unlike the rest of the characters, he's already a star. We catch him at the top of his game and watch him spiral down the drain. Eddie handles it beautifully. Since Jimmy is a musician and this is a musical, that means Eddie has to take the stage. In real life, he's always had a love for making music, but is known as a comedian who makes bad records. His one hit, the Rick James penned "Party All the Time," has become a laughingstock in retrospect. The question going into this movie was would he be able to pull off those scenes. He does. And he does so by just having fun with them. I'd be lying if I said there weren't an element of comedy in his musical performances in this movie. There is. We can clearly see bits of his classic SNL skit creeping in, the one depicting James Brown singing about a hot tub. Once off stage, Murphy nails every aspect of Jimmy Early. He takes a character we started off hating and makes him sympathetic. This is most exemplified by my favorite scene in the entire movie. It's one that requires no singing, and the payoff doesn't even require dialogue from Murphy. Much of the movie is set during the 1960s and early 70s, so times are turbulent. Jimmy has been hard at work on an album of protest songs, much like Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. He brings it to label head Curtis Taylor (Jamie Foxx) who shoots it down because he doesn't see the commercial value in it. With a look of utter dejection and disgust on his face, Jimmy silently reaches into his pocket, pulls out a a bag of heroin and drops it on the table. It's a heart-breaking moment. In the career of an actor who has made his name by being consistently over the top, this subtly played moment stands out as perhaps his best piece of acting. For his efforts, Eddie Murphy was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.


All of my life, I've had a firm belief that Eddie Murphy was not just some funny guy, but a supremely talented actor who so happened to be hilarious. His performance in Dreamgirls served as confirmation of my crazy idea. My hope was that this would open a new chapter in his career. I knew he would never stop doing comedies, but I wanted to see him tackle the occasional dramatic role. I hoped he would relish the chance to show off his chops from time to time. Nearly a decade later, I'm still waiting for him to take on something challenging. Unfortunately, his very next movie was completely rotten and unfunny comedy Norbit and he hasn't looked back since. Please, Eddie, on the off chance that you might read this, give us much less Rasputia, much more Jimmy.



12 comments:

  1. That scene is a great example of the career path that Eddie Murphy should've done. That scene itself where he just grabs his bag of smack and he doesn't say a damn thing. That is acting at its finest.

    The Jimmy Early character is a very sad one. Here is a guy that was a total original. He was doing fine and didn't really need to crossover into the white mainstream. Instead, he is coaxed by this snake to see the bigger things in life while Danny Glover's character tells him that he can't have it all.

    Thus, Early becomes not just safe but a shell of his former self by singing sappy, sad love songs that is the opposite of who he was. Due to Curtis' neglect and becoming a joke, the Jimmy's Rap scene I see is an attempt of Jimmy trying to reclaim something he had lost. Instead, Curtis drops him while Lorell sadly leaves him as she no longer wanted to be a mistress. It is in that movie where Jimmy realizes that everything Danny Glover had told him was true and thus left that air of tragedy.

    I think Eddie could've done something like an Alexander Payne film where he would play men that are lost and try to find meaning or do something that is full-on drama. He has that gift to do these kind of things and he's wasting it on bullshit like Norbit.

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    1. Great analysis of both Jimmy and Eddie. I will always virw this performance as proof that he has "it" in him from a dramatic standpoint. He just refuses to go there, for whatever reason. Might as well because I dont think he's had a positively received film since Dreamgirls. I hope he taps into this part of his talent again, and soon.

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  2. Great pick! I wish Eddie would challenge himself with more roles like this because the guy is supremely talented. I was actually rooting for him during that Oscar season. There was something about the way he sang "Fake Your Way to the Top" that I thought was just brilliant.

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    1. I knew Arkin would win, but I was rooting for him, too. Like you I wish he take on more roles like this.

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  3. Really, a brilliant performance. The best in the movie, and he should have won the Oscar. EASILY. I don't think Norbit lost it for him, though. I think Arkin was going to win all along: Sympathy and all, plus career honors.

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    1. Nah, Norbit didn't lose it for him. Didn't help, either, lol. Arkin was going to win partly for the reasons you gave, plus he actually was great in Little Miss Sunshine.

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  4. Excellent overview of his strong contribution to the film. He's an example of a talent who finds it easier to coast on laurels, he's almost on fumes now, than stretch his considerable gifts in challenging material. Perhaps he doesn't feel the need to extend himself anymore, that's the sense he seems to exude in his films since this one, at least the few that I've seen. It's always frustrating to see a performer like him throw their gifts away but maybe he'll find something that will inspire him again. He has a rep for being incredibly difficult to work with, and from the one personal experience I've had with him offscreen-I'll just say it was negative-he is no walk in the park there either and directors don't think he's worth the effort. But the focus is this role and he did pour his guts into making the part vivid. A terrific pick for the series!

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    1. Thanks. I think part of it is resting on his laurels. Another part seems to be a fear of putting himself out there, plus we can't discount the complacency brought on by money. Curious about what that personal experience was, though.

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  5. He was the best thing about Dreamgirls, and I'm always saddened that he didn't win that Oscar (even if I preferred Jackie Earl Haley, of the nominees). I think the bitterness of the loss got to him, as well, because he reportedly left the Oscar ceremony right after he lost and he has never really felt the same after that. Shame, really. He has incredible talent.

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    1. Yes, he was definitely thing about Dreamgirls. Hadn't really heard that about his Oscar loss. Makes sense, though.

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  6. I disagree with you about the movle Norbit. Aside from the typical Eddie Murphy slapstick in this movie, it was one of his funniest movies to me. Just like you, Ive watched Raw and recited many lines from there like I did with Norbit. Now I will say that Tower Heist is not one of his better movies but he is still young and has more projects to do Im sure. I loved his cartoon show The PJ'S.

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  7. I disagree with you about the movle Norbit. Aside from the typical Eddie Murphy slapstick in this movie, it was one of his funniest movies to me. Just like you, Ive watched Raw and recited many lines from there like I did with Norbit. Now I will say that Tower Heist is not one of his better movies but he is still young and has more projects to do Im sure. I loved his cartoon show The PJ'S.

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