Anything but dull, if you understand empathy and true love.

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2019)

This film touches on some very under appreciated facts about alcohilism and mental illness, such as recognition that alcoholism is a disease. So many people through lack of empathy and understanding have a negative attitude towards issues, such as alcoholism and mental illness and that is gently but definitely touched upon here. The way Ally loves Jack is real, true acceptance if who he is and loves him anyway, it was regeshing in a climate where if you so much as cough at another human being you are severely reprimanded for being a terrible person, well the trutb is people are not perfect, not robots and I found it refreshing to watch a film that highlights the fact that people are not infallible and that says that is ok, it says that Love is worth more than fame and fortune and success and it is true. the references to Ally not looking appropriate based on individual appraisal points out lacking in society's attitudes to people in general rather than wanting to take raw talent as it is, there is always someone wanting to mould someone else into their own vision for their own ends. it does have a bit of a commercial feel, but at the end of the day the creators need to make their money, so they want it to appeal to the masses. I have not cried at a film like I cried to this literally in years. It really touched me. I disagree that it was entirely predictable. I think had it been predictable drivel like a lot of romantic films are, you would not have had the highs and the lows of the relationship. The story itself is slightly cheesy in places, and I can understand some of the criticism with regards to it being airy fairy and overtly fairytalesque. None of that however took away from the overall message, moral undertow and heartfelt intentions for me. What really resonated for me was the depth of the love between Ally and Jack. It was a wonderful reminder of the importance of true love in what is now a fairly materialistic and emotionally controlled time to be living in, it veered away from all the traditional views of how we should all behave like robots and concentrated on the beauty and uniqueness of being human and accepting flaws as being wonderful beautiful. Hats off to bradley, I can see what you were trying to achieve. Breathtaking.