An exquisite pleasure - the kind that leaves one ultimately unsatisfied

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2017)

I liked this film very much - the time flew by and I was completely transported to a place of dreams and high emotion. It felt fresh, naïve without being sickening, romantic without being cloying and had a a very nice touch of Casablanca about it. As someone who grew up surrounded by Art and artists, I am very familiar with both the romanticism and impossibility of a lasting relationship between two artists and that sentiment rang very true.
The film is of a very particular type of pleasure though - the exquisite kind that leaves one ultimately unsatisfied. Perhaps it is as it should be - or perhaps it could have been truly magnificent if it had a little more understatement and a little more flair where it counts. I have great respect Emma Stone and she was terrific - and yet, in my opinion, this film could have been made brilliant with a lead who'd be more elegant, stylish and lush, someone like Jenna Dewan or Scarlet Johansson.
All in all, a perfectly dreamy, romantic, emotional and bittersweet musical and miles better than most Hollywood films in the past 20 years, nearly worth all the hype.