Decent Movie- More Fitting in BollyWood than Hollywood

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2017)

BollyWood is the nickname of the Indian film Industry, largely centered in Bombay (now called Mumbai). It produces a steady stream of pisi-kaka every year. So much so that it is in Guiness book of World Records in some category. Most of BollyWood films are in that sense musicals because it has a lit of music and dance, and they are absurd (the song and dance sequence) but cleverly done.
With that out of the way, I think the reader can figure out why I chose the above heading. If you have seen the movie, not sure why are you reading it (although I read reviews after I seen a movie to just check out what other people think) and if you have not, I would suggest you do go watch it. I have been meaning to ever since it came out and been postponing it because I wanted to be sufficiently depressed so that if the movie sucked, which it kinda did on many levels, then my day could not get any worse. And it did not.
It is a strange movie. Almost like Seinfeld. A TV show about nothing. Although there is the loose connection with one's dreams, how dreams are almost difficult to pursue, bla-blah-blah and of course ends with the hackneyed cliché where boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl go separate ways and boy and girl meets 5 years later to think what could have been. Boring. So BollyWood.
Emma Stone is not even pretty but she grows on you and looks cute in the middle. Gosling is in equal parts good looking, good actor and does a decent job. Neither his performance, nor Emma Stone's , or for that movie as a whole is nothing to write home about. So aptly (if I may use a symbolism) summarized in Emma Stone's (Mia's) phone call to her mother describing Sebastian, her new boyfriend ('he is not anyone yet'). There are hardly any other characters of any significance in the movie. The guy who plays Kevin, or Keith- besides perpetuating the cliché' 'White Boys Can't Jump' (You have to have Black People if you are talking Jazz), do not see what was his role in the movie. I hear he is some kind of a musician of some fame. My advice would be (not that he needs it, or cares) that do not give up your day job. Talk about 'Product placement'!
Acting is ordinary, sets are great and THAT dance sequence (with the Canary Yellow Dress) which is plastered all over the promo material is really good. Besides that, not much. Why it is so much of a craze, I would not know. Why 14 nominations, who knows? I don't get to nominate. And frankly who cares besides the folks who made the movie? It does not deserve the 'hate' (did not even know it had hate till I stumbled along the boards), nor does it deserve 14 Oscar nomination or 7 Golden Globes (surpassing One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest- seriously?).
My wife watched the movie with her girl-friends on release day and described it as 'Magical'. I knew then I better not rush to watch it. It is a 'chick-flick' but with a sub- text. The queen of unrequited love is the man. How BollyWood! A solid 6.