A Total Mess

Rating: 1/10 (4 March 2019)

This remake of a remake - made many times before, has nothing to offer the viewer except possibly a peek into today's cultural obsession into victim hood, and yes, the ridiculous idea of toxic masculinity. First of all the chemistry between Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is like ether, it is there, barely, as it unfolds from scene to scene and then it is gone, evaporated into the unknown. It is almost painful to watch, actually it is painful, and the fact that Cooper delivers his lines with his head down most of the time and that Lady Gaga needs another few semesters of acting classes makes for a very looooong two plus hours of cinematic purgatory. Aside from the obstacles of not having any memorable scenes and a wooden performance from Gaga there is this nagging concession that what one is watching is some writer's excruciating attempt to rewrite a simple love story so that it incorporates all the political and cultural angst that we must all be burdened with in the early 21st century. Imagine that , the lead female role falling in love with a man after declaring how much she hates men in an early scene, and throughout the movie incessantly goes on a ball-busting campaign until he buckles under the abuse and fights back with some very hurtful words. Folks, at this point this gets very difficult to watch. Especially since the tale is such a simple tragedy, it just topples under its own weight ufortunately. Finally, the music was mediocre at best. Now I'm not saying the soundtrack from the last remake was earth shattering but with so much hype, and focus on production you would think the producers would have spent the cash to hire top notch hit writers. Not here. All in all a dud.