I Watched La La Land.
I knew this movie out and that I had to see it before I even knew what it was about. I got a notification in a hockey/friend-based Facebook group addressing me personally that this was something imperative for me to check out. I was geared. Ready. And when I watched the trailer, I was unsure if I had looked up the right film.
Gosling and Stone in a light romantic musical set somewhere in Hyper Bright Los Angeles, some time during the present day? Falling in love and dancing and singing and a gigantic production value? I get it, it’s beautiful. But certainly not for me, per say. I needed to dig a bit more. Dig, I did. Finding zero irony, zero twist, zero rub, I felt that this film had to be doing this specific genre and this specific story better than any film had ever done it previously.
The Golden Globes pull through and this film CLEANS. UP. Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy, Best Musical/Comedy, Best Director, Best Score, Best Screenplay… wow. Absolutely dominant. I watch the trailer again, conceding that maybe my expectation had quieted a bit, and that this would speak more directly to me now that I knew what voice to expect.
Still nothing.
Today I finally found the time to watch it. And while a lot of my opinions on it feel a little dense and crotchety, I still ended up coming out of it having enjoyed my experience, possibly for reasons that lack the lightness it had intended.
If I could watch this film again without the singular musical numbers, I think I might have liked this film even more. I felt that I was watching around them as opposed to being engaged by them. There was a distance there, a kind of lack of deliberate decision within the story at times. Like these songs were written and choreographed already, and strings of story and dialog were chained together to sync this song with the next one. I’m primarily speaking about the opening few numbers where the frequency of songs were at their highest. The film was advertised as a musical and this early on, I felt that there was no other way to classify it, though the same close friend had said that it was no such thing. And having sat through the second half, I totally understand what he means. While most of this felt very much like a Broadway show to me, it did begin to strip down a lot of its “Musical” genrefication although MUSIC did tend to play a rather large role within.
Jazz music to be specific. And one of the best parts of the film, one of the most powerful moments of dialog, is when Ryan Gosling’s Seb describes to Emma Stone’s Mia his love of jazz. Its history, the role it played as a landmark in his life, the reasons that he loves it more than any other style of music. Watching that spark in someone ignited and then communicated and passed like a giant Olympic torch to someone who beforehand was uninformed and even against it turns into an open mind and then a true love for it. The passion there was real. And watching the love that Mia ended up developing for Seb through his passion for that which he loved was truly written from the heart. There are few things that you can fall in love with easier than watching someone participate in, around and because of the PASSION that they share for something. And Mia reflected Seb’s passion back at him. Part of what made Stone’s performance in this film so wonderful are her full embodiments of emotion. Her watching on as Seb played his piano with his band, listening to his every word as he told tales about why Jazz was the most prevalent theme in his life… I believed her love. And it’s that fullness, that absolute saturation, that made me believe her reaction to the betrayals later on, namely at another scene which really stood out for me: the fight at the dinner table.
This is where you can see the levee break. As Seb is following an anemic and altered version of his dream, she voices that she misses him. And as he starts to unspool the beginning of what sounds like an endless thread of bad news and a potential bad future for their relationship, she is watching him not only betray his own personal passion but also betray her. The dialog, while a bit flat for the screen, sounds like it’s been pulled directly from a human interaction. He’s settled and is conceded to following a job that he’s tied to, and she is trying to understand how she fits into the equation. She questions him and points out that this venture doesn’t even fit into the outline of the vibrant and luscious dream that he’d painted. This dream, this passion, was who he was to her. What she fell in love with. And he was casting it off. And when he tries to turn the table back on her in desperation, she doesn’t lash out or get angry. She gets devastated. The look on her face and the vitality that is drained from her, the spirit that is instantly absent, is portrayed in a strong and mighty performance. I’ve never been a huge fan of Emma Stone (I liked her quite a bit in Birdman) but this film tells of the massive potential that she has. This is the greatest performance of her career by leaps and bounds.
Things take an even more personal and heartbreaking turn. We watch resolutions and changes and olive branches extend as we enter the third act of the film. Another couple of songs debut, and again ones that I could have done without. These aren’t bad songs, but I don’t think they feel like they heighten or enhance the movie in any way.
The ending of the film felt right. I don’t really want to say much more as this film is still fairly relevant and one that many people will still want to see. I believe in this ending, and can fully relate to exactly how it played out. There are more thoughts there so the end of this little reaction piece will feel like it sharply cut off. I want to say that while I am not a fan of the musical numbers that were included in this film, it took nothing away from how I felt about the narrative and the story being told. A great film and definitely one worth seeing and falling in love with.
