A richly layered devastating love story

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2018)

Why do we enjoy watching anyone - an athlete, a musician, an actor, a dancer, a circus performer - do something difficult, but yet make it look so easy and joyful? It invigorates us, gives us a jolt and makes us feel euphoric. Perhaps, it tells us that that person has perfected his/her craft through sheer endeavour and cathartically we, and in turn human kind, have scored a victory.
The talent on display in A Star is Born, from the refreshing crafting of a familiar story to every stellar performance, was electrifying. There have been three iterations of this story, starting with the Pygmalion tale in 1937, but somehow first-time director Bradley Cooper has given the laboured story a fresh coat of paint and it is a movie for that informs these times.
The Oscar season is months away, but I will bet my bottom dollar that this gets a slew of nominations, including Best Picture. I had goosebumps rising while watching the plot unfold and this is the first time it happened this year.
One of the movie's pleasures is that it's really about something and of course romance takes centrestage. It also has something to say about the price of fame, the propensity to cultivate talent and how contagious it is. The story of a doomed romance you can see from a mile away, but Cooper and Eric Roth (Oscar winner for Forrest Gump, 1994) somehow managed to retell an old story in a fresh way.
The first thing they did right is in the casting of Lady Gaga. On paper, I didn't think she makes for a wise choice for a streetsmart Ally because of her larger-than-life much malingered persona. I can't remember the last time I actually saw her face with no enhancements and make-up on. In terms of her music, I could only get into her infectious debut The Fame, and none of her subsequent albums registered in my consciousness. Wouldn't a guarded Ally be the anti-thesis of Lady Gaga's rock star persona? But all my misgivings evaporated the moment she hits those power notes. She is the mother lode, she is the real deal. All the singing in the movie was done live, to the camera and scoring Lady Gaga is the first major coup.
The story of how one star gradually goes supernova, while another fades into oblivion is a story as old as romance. The way to make the dots and lines disappear is to make the characters relatable and believable. Bradley Cooper, going the way of Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas and Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, turns in an outstanding performance. His voice is a couple of octaves lower than his usual roles and seeing him in a constant inebriated state and yet having the acumen to see talent is quite something to behold. You can almost pinpoint the moment he begins to love Ally, and of course their onscreen chemistry is electrifying. And when I say "love", I don't mean Hollywood's version of wanting to get into each other's pants as fast as possible. His journey from admiration to love for Ally is immensely moving.
Cooper's choice of close-up shots and handheld cinematography gives the story a sense of realism. How the camera weaves around the actors on a rock concert stage gives me an adrenaline-charged view of what actually happens on stage while the audience is cheering.
Above all else, what actually did it for me is how the devastating love story never becomes manipulative. Although the music and songs direct and reflect the feelings of the characters, it never cheapens the narrative by being overly sentimental.
A sad sense of inevitability pervades and the movie does get a bit exhausting after the charm of the sensational start wears off. But heck... I think it is meant to be exhausting. How else can one see Maine's star wane and Ally's get meteoric?
A Star is Born's blend of romantic tragedy and emotional delimma is presented with compelling conviction and honesty. It ends with a sort of honey-trap but by then I was a goner and with a definitive final shot the movie earned its namesake, A Star is Born.