La La Land by Wayne Keeley

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2019)

NOTE: There is no way that this film can be reviewed without revealing spoilers.
Happy ending, happy ending
Give me a story with a happy ending
When boy meets girl and then
They never part again

From Elvis Presley's It Happened at the World's Fair (Words and music by Ben Weisman - Sid Wayne)

Okay, so I must disclose that I was biased even before watching La La Land and was positive that this review would be a rave. One of the main reasons is that I love the old-style Hollywood musicals like Singin' in the Rain, Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon, and most of Elvis Presley's musicals (yes, it's true, Viva Las Vegas being among my favorites). I may commit critic sacrilege here, but I even loved Beach Blanket Bingo with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. La La Land got incredible raves from all of the major critics. It was touted as a throwback to the old silver screen musicals. Then I heard via cocktail chit-chat that it had a knock-down-drag-out opening number. I also heard Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are the new A-List triple threats (Gosling being a quadruple threat, because he not only acted, sang and danced, but did all of the keying on the piano for complicated jazz musical numbers.
The archetypal plot was simple and algorithmically sound; one that is as old as time itself. Two people on diverging paths in life meet and fall in love. How can that formula go wrong? Remember When Harry Met Sally? Here, Ryan Gosling plays a struggling jazz pianist who after a series of fateful encounters (or mis-encounters) hooks up with Emma Stone, a barista wannabe actress. He loves jazz - the real, historical, visceral, gut-wrenching jazz of Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Thelonius Monk. He wants to own a club someday where he can showcase the real deal. She, on the other hand, wants fame and fortune as an actress - think icon status like Audrey Hepburn. Despite their different dreams, they support each other and ultimately fall in love.
And so I began watching it with a glorious grin on my face, already thinking of the superlatives that I would use in my review. The opening number was as predicted - simply incredible - killer camera work and choreography. Indeed, the single-take-steadicam/jib-arm opening number left the long Steadicam takes in Birdman in the dust. It also far surpassed the groundbreaking Steadicam opening (amazing for its time) of The Bonfire of the Vanities with Bruce Willis. Now I was thinking of superlative superlatives to use.
Okay, so in the dancing department, Gosling and Stone were nowhere near Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. And maybe their singing was not on par with Tony Bennet and Lady Gaga (or, for that matter, Meatloaf and Karla DeVito). And maybe it wasn't a jukebox musical and didn't have the great musical numbers of a Man of La Mancha or My Fair Lady. At least I was still smiling.
NOW HERE COMES THE SPOILER.
Just when you think it's going to be an Elvis Presley happy-ending musical, it cuts to five years later. Not only aren't they together anymore, but she's married to a guy who looks like the boyfriend she dumped for Gosling and has a kid! Oh, and she also is a huge star. She and her husband are on their way to dinner when they hit bumper-to-bumper traffic. Just when I think this is some parallel universe and her husband is going to morph into Ryan Gosling, she tells him to turn off the highway and look for a restaurant on the backroads. Lo and behold, they stumble into this jazz club - you guessed it - owned by Ryan Gosling. They spot each other and it cuts to a meticulously assembled montage of what their life would have been like if they had stayed together. Maybe she wouldn't have been as big an actress and he wouldn't have his club, but at least they were together. So this was an alternate ending - I thought of the plays If/Then and Constellations and the films Sliding Doors and Savages. So it would be a happy ending after all.
Not!
It cuts back to her with her lame husband. They end up leaving after Gosling does a heart-wrenching homage on the keys to their past relationship. She leaves the club but not until after a parting exchange of knowing looks between them.
No happy ending. You know how frustrating that can be? You invest two hours in a film, are led down a garden path to what you think is a happily ever after ending and instead the hero turns into a Judas cow and gets slaughtered. I felt let down, betrayed. It was like the ending of Kevin Costner's No Way Out - a beautifully plotted thriller ruined by a cheap twist during the last two minutes of the film. I turned to my wife and co-reviewer; both our jaws were dropped lower than that of Marley's ghost's.
How can this be? Winner of seven Golden Globes, eight Critics Choice Awards, and fourteen Oscar nominations! Could I be this wrong about a movie after thirty years in the biz? I went back and did some research. Maybe the real ending would be released on an exclusive Walmart or Target DVD, or a digital download from Amazon.
I read that Damien Chazelle, the film's writer and director (who also did Whiplash) actually edited the ending first! He wanted it to end that way; meticulously planned it! How can you make sense of something like this? How can you justify it? I asked my wife and co-reviewer didn't they smile at each other at the end. She said that Gosling looked sad.
That was it then. I was determined to write this review with the sharpest Ticonderoga#2 possible. I was going to cut it until it bled.
And then SAG's promotional folder for the film came in the mail. And there, emblazoned on the cover in a frozen tableau, were the parting close-ups of Gosling and Stone smiling at each other. But it was more than that. Their eyes were beaming!
Like Michael Corleone being thunderstruck by Apollonia in The Godfather, it hit me: it was a happy ending. It had to end like this. There was no other way. They both loved their dreams more than each other. Their dreams were everything to them. In fact, the only thing they really had in common was that they both loved their dreams to the exclusion of everything else. They weren't compatible in the least. She didn't like jazz, and he wasn't crazy about acting (he missed her one woman show choosing a photo shoot for his band over her). While opposites attract, there must be a core compatibility. I know this first-hand because my beautiful wife is my partner and soulmate in every way possible. Even when we write reviews (which we do so independent of each other) sometimes they are eerie doppelgangers down to same verbatim lines! (In fact, I can't wait to read her review of La La Land). And finally, sometimes true love means letting go.
In conclusion, all I can say is that La La Land is a damn fine musical with a happy ending.