The thing that hurt Beyonce, was that she was Beyonce. I think she did an okay job at Deena. A little 2D for me, but she wasn't total crap. Although, I would like to have seen her bitchier than that. Also, the song Listen was a little much for me. I would have rather her "Ain't my party" that Anika's character Lorelle would sing.

Here's what I just don't get about the criticism of Beyonce.

People say that she is coasting on her good looks, that her success is the product of marketing hype and that Jennifer Hudson has a much better voice than she does.

But isn't that the whole point of her role?

Deena Jones is coasting on her good looks, her success is the product of marketing hype and Effie White has a much better voice than she does.

I always thought that Deena Jones was supposed to be a mediocre singer and actress - therefore, Beyonce's limitations as a singer and as an actress fit perfectly with the character she is supposed to be portraying.

she can sing but with the song Listen she sounded like she was whinning

Precisely. Beyonce fulfilled the basic requirements of the role: being stunningly beautiful with a light, commercial pop music voice. As for the acting, she really has only one major cringeworthy moment, when she has the line about wanting to have Curtis's baby - and there, the dialogue with which she's saddled doesn't help much either.

Later days
David

Yes. Honestly, Beyonce fit the role very well. She played Deena very sweet. Too sweet, almost. She should have kept in mind that the role is literally based on Diana Ross, and we ALL know Miss Ross ain't no sweetheart. She was career driven, and incredibly selfish. The group revolved around HER, and while it was handed to her at first by surprise, there should have been some kind of transformation from wall flower to diva, and it didn't happen.

This caused a problem, in my opinion. It made Jennifer Hudson seem like the bad guy to most viewers who didn't know the story, when in reality, Effie is the heroine. Whatevs. Beyonce wasn't horrid acting wise, she just needs to learn that you can't play ideas. It's a typical beginner's mistake.

My only real problem with her vocals, however, is that she was too good as Deena. Deena is suppose to have a light, airy, boring voice that, to us today, wouldn't be anything special. That's why Deena sings lead. She translates to a white audience better than a wailing, belting high F's Effie White. Instead, Beyonce decided to wail the CRAP out of her songs, to the point where one starts asking, "But wait, isn't that the sound they didn't want for the group?". In fact, I always laugh when Curtis says to her, "Your voice has no personality." It's so funny, because it's absolutely false. Even if he is saying it just to hurt her, the way she sang that entire movie, her character would have just laughed in his face.

But whatevs. My rant is done. Case in point, Beyonce was a good Deena

Well she's good at her profession
and also very charming
and fun. I'm a big fan
of her every song that was
released I have it all
actually I have a collection
of it.

I am a HHUUUGGGEEE Beyonce fan, but even I can admit that her acting skills aren't the best. Weird though as her 'acting' in music videos is normally pretty good. Next to Jennifer Hudson I think she definately held her own though. Listen was amazing and her voice is phenomenal!