7/10 Homage to Hollywood ...city of stars

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2017)

It's easy to see why this so popular with Hollywood it about The Hollywood dream . What better way to express that than in a musical. I'll be honest I love the genre , musicals dominate my top ten films of all time . They encompass pure escapism , romance , and put a smile on your face throughout and maybe the odd tear too . Best of all you can watch them over and over again :)
How did this this perform as a musical ? Poorly to be honest , yes there's romance , yes there's escapism , but the smiles were sadly missing . Undoubtedly you'll fall in love with Emma Stone , Ryan Gosling's performance however was substandard in comparison , you never really felt his character had true ' I would die for you ' passion for Mia .
I loved the homage to Hollywood however , particularly the mash up of Ricks bar in Casablanca throughout . The whole premise of a musical is mad people don't generally break into song and dance in the street but when they do in this movie they're able to do it tongue in cheek and with humour recognising how bizarre their actions are , I loved the use of spotlighting in musical sequences , just wish there were more musical numbers and maybe a few full cast dance numbers , the opening sequence gave you a feeling you were in for a traditional musical with a touch of Mamma Mia popularity but it never transpired .
On the negative side the movie did try and tick too many boxes and could have benefited from better script editing and adhering to a true romantic story line but perhaps that was its aim , like the breakaway from traditional jazz there's an attempt to break away from the traditional musical .
The overall theme was that fantasy is better than reality and this was enhanced by the closing scene . Life is so much better in La La Land :)
There were a couple of musical numbers you won't be able to get out of your head , I liked the film , just wish I could have loved it , I ought to want to see it again but I'm not bothered and that's where it failed on the whole .
Here's to those who dream
Pad.A