Pluskylang Great Film overall

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Chardae Bazemore This film was powerful. Halle Berry did an excellent job and I felt the pain that Dorothy Dandridge endured. I was rooting for Dandridge as she experienced hardships and I felt her determination to succeed as I watched her become the first African-American actress nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award. They did a nice job capturing the time period and showing the strength of Dandridge as she worked hard to break down racial barriers. Brent Spiner also did a great job showing the love and admiration longtime friend and agent Earl Mills had for Dorothy. Brent and Halle's connection felt real. When I first saw the film, I was only a girl, but looking back and noticing that Shonda Rhimes was the writer, I understand why this is still one of my favorite movies.

selenoid I think one would easily fall in love with Dorothy Dandridge depiction of drop-dead-gorgeous Halle Berry. Thus, the scenes, especially sentimental shots, make remarkable effects on the audience themselves. Given that, the audience can easily put themselves in several characters' shoes which makes the scenes more sentimental, even heart pounding at times. All characters are defined in a simplistic but sufficiently detailed manner, that would never hinder the enchanting effect of Dorothy Dandridge, accompanied with the music and the images of the era depicted throughout the entire movie. A must see for everyone that likes musical and cinematographic history.

Jay Raskin The only thing I knew about Dorothy Dandridge before seeing this film was her terrific performance in "Carmen Jones." I now feel that I know much more about her life and the times she lived in.The beginning of the film is a little disjointed, but it becomes more fascinating as it goes along. The best parts of the movie are scenes with Brent Spinner (Star Trek: next Generation) as her manager, Earl Wills, and Klaus Maria Brandauer (Mephisto) as film director Otto Preminger. They are both men who fall in love with Ms. Dandridge, despite the horribly racist nature of the times.The film is at its best when it shows the talent of Ms. Dandridge (well-played by Halle Berry who won an Emmy for it) and when it shows the incredible racism of the time she lived in. The film avoids the real horror and ugliness of the time (lynchings, poverty and unjust imprisonment of blacks) but makes the point that even the most sophisticated and brilliant Black people at the time faced ridiculous and inhuman discrimination.It is a good and important movie and probably reflects Ms. Dandridge's self image very well. See it especially if you are a movie fan. Seeing the Nicolas Brothers, Marilyn Monroe and Darrell F. Zanuck in a few scenes is especially fun and worth the price of admission, as they say.

tavm In reviewing African-Americans in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1999 with another biographical movie from HBO called Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Before she herself became the first woman of color to win the Oscar for Best Actress (for Monster's Ball), Halle Berry portrayed the first such woman to be nominated in that category-Ms. Dorothy Dandridge. Framed by scenes in which Dorothy is talking on the phone to someone named Geri, we find out early on that Geri (Tamara Taylor) is the wife of one of the Nicholas Brothers (Fayard) she talks to on the set of the dance scene she performed with them on Sun Valley Serenade. The other brother, Harold (Obba Babatunde), Dorothy eventually marries. The bed scene, cut between those of the Auntie (LaTanya Richardson) abusing Dorothy from earlier, is a harbinger of the struggles Dandridge goes through in life. And what struggles they are: painfully dealing with segregation in various hotels and nightclubs with manager Earl Mills (Brent Spiner) constantly trying to reassure her, Carmen Jones director Otto Preminger (Klaus Maria Brandauer) becoming intimate with her during the filming and subsequent release through to the Academy Awards only to drop her after it's all over, his later treatment of her during Porgy and Bess, drunken abuse from later husband Jack Denison (D.B. Sweeney) over losing his nightclub after she failed to attract crowds night after night, and her eventual decline in pills and alcohol even with Mills back in her career. There's also notable turns by Loretta Devine as Dorothy's mother Ruby, Cynda Williams as sister Vivian, Darrian C. Ford as Fayard Nicholas, and William Atherton as Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck. Director Martha Coolidge made a mostly compelling account of the highs and lows of this trailblazing personality with Berry providing the beauty and range to put it through nicely. Her scenes with her mentally impaired daughter Harolyn were also pretty heartbreaking. The film's source was Mills' biography of her. I haven't read that though I did read another one by Donald Bogle that I heartily recommend as I definitely do of this nearly excellent movie.