Eh.

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2017)

Since the overwhelming consensus is that this is the best thing since sliced bread, my opinion probably means very little here. Still, I'll try to sum up my feeling of the film:
5 seconds in, I had tears in my eyes.
The first musical number is absolutely incredible. It's big, it's wild, it's colourful and filled with power and joy.
The last scene in the movie is absolutely amazing as well; I won't spoil anything, but it somehow captures both the extreme highs and the lows of emotion in only a few minutes.
It's the bits in the middle that bother me.
See, a lot of it just... drawn out. At some point, it just becomes an infinite loop of the two lead actors staring wistfully into the distance to jazz music. There are a few of those big show-stopper numbers in between, but they jar with the long, quiet blandness of the rest of the film. These two parts of the film are never reconciled. There's something off about the flow of the whole thing, the way it all connects. The cinematography and colours are beautiful even in the "normal" scenes, but all of the big emotional creativity - the actual core of the movie - seems to have been reserved for the songs.
Now, this wouldn't be a problem if there was a song for each important beat, but there are only about 5 songs that are actually sung by the characters. Considering most Broadway musicals have about 15 songs, this movie exists in a weird state where the creators aren't sure as to whether they want a colourful larger-than-life Broadway musical or a realistic, toned-down non-musical drama. Which is a shame, really, because the scenes on their own are crafted masterfully; it's just that they fall apart as a whole.
The cinematography and directing is a delight; the actors are lovely, if limited by the script (as said, they spend a lot of time staring wistfully into the distance), and the music is wonderful. So, I dunno, go watch it if you have the time - you'll probably like it more than I did.