Introducing Dorothy Dandridge

By James Poniewozik

Producing the story of the first black woman to receive an Oscar nomination as Best Actress was a labor of love for Halle Berry. Maybe too much love, as the end product is a devoted but ultimately dull hagiopic. Berry is vivacious and hungry as Dandridge, and Brent Spiner is affecting as her dedicated manager; but a flat script and uninteresting narrative (rendered in flashback as Berry flips through a scrapbook) throw ice water on the heat its subject is supposed to project.

--J.P.