Friday, February 17, 2017

Come home, Fred and Ginger


Perhaps I should begin by saying that I didn't go into town to see La La Land. I went to see Manchester by the Sea. However, something unavoidable got in the way and by the time I got to the cinema, the only film that fitted in with my train home was La La Land. And as it was a dull February day I decided to see what all the fuss was about. 

Now I've seen it I still don't know what all the fuss is about. If this is the writer-director's homage to old time Hollywood musicals, he either hasn't seen enough of them, or he just doesn't have what it takes to create an homage. I could have lent him my collection, if he'd asked.





Firstly, the film was too long. After the first half hour I was wondering if I should check the timetable for an earlier train. Then it got going. But...

Singing and dancing are surely central to a Hollywood musical, but neither of the leads have more than mediocre voices, and as for the couple's dancing!!!!!!! (and I am a woman who despises exclamation marks.) I could have done that dancing. Any tap class beginner could have done that dancing. The choreography was uninspiring and hopelessly basic. It was dull. It was milk sop stuff. Yes, you could infer I was disappointed.

The acting was terrific, and I liked two of the musical numbers - City of Stars and Audition. For me, Audition was the best part of the whole confection. Hmm...I also liked the what if sequence at the end of the film. That was good. And the whole film was certainly more entertaining than standing in a field in driving sleet waiting for murmurating starlings that don't arrive.

But what's going on with the ending? This was surely a rom-com. The couple said they would always love each other (quite convincingly too.) Then five years later she is happily married to someone else and has a child. Is this the only bit of reality to invade the story? That people who are single-minded enough to achieve their dreams in showbiz can't stay faithful and committed to someone who they say they will always love? 

Enough. I need to get back to rereading Billy Mernit's Writing the Romantic Comedy. He talks such good sense.






8 comments:

Phoebe said...

I agree: the Audition song was the high point of the film. But IMO you are missing the point of "we'll always love each other." Retrospectively one realizes this is their bittersweet parting. The parallel ending gives us the wish (they stay together) and the reality (they're okay but they don't stay together). I found that very poignant: we go through life accumulating damage and misunderstanding that can't always be overcome. The resultant losses and hurts become part of who we are.

Sue Hepworth said...

How great to have someone discussing this post!
I understand what you're saying about the ending, but I saw the film as escapism* and the ending - which would be perfectly fine for another film - therefore did not fit.

*e.g. it's so unrealistic (but fine in escapism) that the people who audition her at the end say the film in Paris will be built around her (the character) and they have no theme or story so far for it. And to make this worse we never see what she is capable of because the screenwriter doesn't allow us to see any of her one-woman performance at the theatre.

Phoebe said...

So it's a jumble of genres one might say. But for me it worked.

Sue Hepworth said...

If there had been no hype and no awards and I had come across the film organically I would no doubt have enjoyed it as light entertainment and not been so critical. Although I would still have been disappointed by the couple's dancing.

Phoebe said...

Hype can definitely interfere with one's perception of a film. As for the singing and dancing (she the better singer, he the better dancer), I have to think about this casting, especially given the huge amount of talent available. There has to have been a point here, although as yet I am not sure what it is.

Sue Hepworth said...

My view is that the writer/ director does not value dancing or singing. For some mysterious reason he nevertheless wanted to make a faux Hollywood musical. Ah well.

Sue Hepworth said...

Casting sometimes does make one raise ones eyebrows. I am always really annoyed when in American films they have Americans Cast as English characters and having dire accents, when the there must be plenty of English actors available.

Sue Hepworth said...

But I Didnt mean to complain about their dancing being bad, but the choreography being dull and basic.