An alright film, but not a great musical

Rating: 6/10 (12 March 2017)

I enjoyed "La La Land" as a piece of innocuous, colourful escapism. The two leads are endearing and funny, the cinematography is dynamic, the sentimentality plucks rather than gurns and overall I found the dramatic conclusion to the two young dreamer's relationship emotionally fulfilling.
However, the 'musical' element of the film was lacking. It's obvious that the spectacle of the old Hollywood sing along exists in La La Land to counter the real downturns and compromises that Mia and Sebastien are forced to make in their own relationship to achieve the success they crave. Real life isn't like the movies, basically.
The problem is that the songs themselves are rather dull and uninspiring, notably the recurring 'music box-esque' piano theme which, while tender and sweet in the right moments, is very simplistic and even childish in structure, sounding curiously unlike anything Sebastien, a jazz pianist, would ever really play.
The large ensemble dance numbers are only at the start of the film. Again, none of these are particularly special, though the weaving camera work in the opening traffic jam number was impressive, the songs didn't stay in my memory for very long and Mandy Moore's choreography is more of a set dressing than a feature to be wowed by. The sporadic duets between Mia and Sebastien are also weak. Their voices are thin, lacking substance and their dancing is at best high school play material, filler for the transitions. These peter out by the film's last third to the point where I wondered why they even bothered making it a musical at all. I would not be running to see this on stage in the West End.
That said, as a movie experience I enjoyed La La Land. It made me smile, even giggle quite a few times, but I do feel the whimsy and nostalgia for old Hollywood is clouding people's judgment of this as a deserving Oscar winner (even though, in the end, it wasn't one).
"The Artist" this ain't.