Painfully and shamefully average

Rating: 5/10 (3 December 2017)

Having waited a year since its original release before I finally saw it meant that I could watch it without the typical Oscars hype that surrounded it. And frankly, I just don't get what the hype was all about.
The story is a somewhat muddled tale of a struggling actress and a jazz musician who fall in love, though they struggle to keep things together as they chase their dreams. Now, a plain story like this can usually be dressed up in a musical with flashy singing and dancing - neither of which are present here. The songs are repetitive, as it turns out that listening to the exact same chord progression repeated for two hours can become a bit tedious; and Stone and Gosling's "singing-in-the-shower" warbles certainly didn't dazzle this viewer. In fact, their restrained musical performances are an embarrassment to the resplendent costumes and sets that surround them.
What's worst, however, is that its potential did shine through. There are two or three dramatic scenes between Stone and Gosling that are so well written and brilliantly acted, they genuinely show up the mediocrity of the rest. It's not a bad film, by any standards, just very painfully and shamefully average.
Finally, I watch enough Strictly Come Dancing to be irked by the poor shaping of Emma Stone's hands during her final musical number with Ryan Gosling. But that's being quite picky, isn't it?