Wanted to love it, came out depressed (spoilers)

Rating: 4/10 (10 January 2017)

This movie begins with great promise and for the first thirty minutes or so I thought this could be a really great movie; an homage to Old Hollywood, a whimsical old-fashioned musical set in contemporary LA. Some of the musical sequences during the first half of the movie are truly wonderful.
But it feels like this movie is in two halves – the second half of the movie is sad, depressing, unengaging and devoid of any of the lustre or magic of the first half. The story becomes clunky, the characters are not interesting anymore. It was turning into 'Blue Valentine-The Musical' - I started to question the motives of the filmmakers, what exactly are they trying to achieve here? Get people to see a modern movie musical and then turn it into a slow, protracted break up movie?
The icing on the cake was the end musical sequence, showing what 'could have been' if the two main characters had stayed together. I was thinking, 'what's the point of this' – it doesn't matter that they didn't stay together. They both attain great success, they both followed their dreams – why then show an extended sequence which comes across as 'if only they had stayed together look what would have happened'? It seemed pointless and really unmoving considering what I think the filmmakers were trying to do.
But in the end, it doesn't matter what the director was hoping to achieve. It's already a huge success. It's a star vehicle with A-list actors and it will win all the awards because it's an "oscar winning movie". But I know I'm not alone in my opinion of this film as an audience member, and that really is all that matters to me.