It was okay...

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2012)

If you haven't watched silent films before, or even early musicals, then you will probably like this movie. My review does contain spoilers, so reader beware.
Just finished watching "The Artist". Terribly simple movie. It wasn't bad at all, but there was hardly much plot. And certainly not original. Guy is a big film star. Guy gets washed up. Eventually makes a come back after.
The whole "silent film star becomes irrelevant due to talking pictures" was the plot line to Singing in the Rain, as well as a few other movies. But thats it. Thats the plot. And then he gets depressed, and an up and coming actress he helped out is now a big star, and eventually helps him make his comeback.
There were also areas in the film where it really, desperately needed a speech frame. I had trouble understanding what was going on, or it took until the end of the scene to figure it out, due to lack of speech frames.
But then there were pointless speech frames. Like a speech frame for a guy saying "I'll go get my car." The film makers felt that bit of info was important enough for a speech frame...but then during an argument, had absolutely no speech frames. So you're literally just watching two people argue in complete silence, and you don't know what about.
Another scene in the movie, a cop is talking to him, and it focuses on the cops mouth, and the main character walks away in discomfort, but you don't know why...I wound up thinking he was going deaf for over 5 minutes, until I realized it was an artsy fartsy way to say the main character was feeling the pressure of talking in a movie.
Soooo....this film was so simple, even a retard could understand the plot line, but the lack of speech frames made a handful of scenes frustrating. And the only musical/dance number is at the very end.
But the clips released on the internet and youtube feature this entire end scene of the film. Why would they do that? Why blow your one dance routine/musical performance AND ending of the film, as an internet commercial??? Most of the film, however, is just depressing, and seeing a man sink lower and lower. Which is fine..but because of the released clips and trailer, you are led to believe you were going to see a lot of dance numbers and flash.
Its called "The Artist"...but there's little to no focus on what exactly he does thats so artistic. The character produces his own film, which flops...soo...he's a failure, not an artist. There wasn't anything about the film that carried you through what about the character is so artistic, other than he's a good mugger.
The car being driven by the female lead is about 6 years older than the year the story is taking place. That was noticeable, and kind of obnoxious, considering its a period piece, and matching the date of a car to the date of the story is the EASIEST thing to get historically correct.
The film quality was just a film digitally made into black and white, so scrap the concept of doing the film as a film of that era would have been done. Then, one of the songs playing over a scene has a vocal track(pennies from heaven)....why? Its a silent movie...you don't have songs with vocal tracks.
I should also add, that the "pay off" at the end was not that great. The dance number they do is the only one in the film, and not to boast...I could have done a better job. Like, if they performed that dance number in the early 30's on screen, the audience would have shouted "Amateurs!" and walked out.
I mean, it wasn't bad...but it wasn't great either. And as someone who has taught himself only a few tap steps and never taken a class, I shouldn't be able to look at a dance routine in a film/period piece and say "I could do better." Maybe I would have enjoyed this film a lot more, had my expectations not been so jerked off by Hollywood and the awards shows. Seriously..if folks in Hollywood are this awestruck by such a simplistic, basic idea, simply because "it hasn't been done in awhile", then that just shows how mediocre and talentless our celebrities have gotten, and how lazy Hollywood producers have gotten.