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Noel Murray just watched the movie Dreamgirls. I won’t comment on the movie itself but his review contains an interesting passage that partly explains why critics and moviegoers often do not see eye-to-eye:

I knew going in that Dreamgirls’ songs aren’t so much catchy Motown knock-offs as attenuated musical theater showpieces, but I wasn’t prepared for their overall blandness, or the way the lyrics hit every emotion square on the nose, leaving little room for interpretation.

There is a bit here to unravel. “bland” plus “emotion” is a strange pairing to leave “little room for interpretation”. Usually “bland” things are emotionless, and “emotions” are vibrant.

So why would Murry claim that emotions are bland? I think it comes down to the illusion of control. Because “the lyrics hit every emotion square on the nose”, he feels compelled to either accept their appeal as emotions felt passionately, or else create a shield of ironic detachment that forces him to experience the movie colorlessly and blandly.

Within the ironic, dispassionate space Murray has created, the only value the movie may hold is for an intellectual attempt at interpretation. But he has already rejected the appeal of the movie. So there is “little room for interpretation”. He has nothing left to do but listen to its sounds and light wash around the theater, go home and write a bad review.

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