Review: La La Land

Warning    Spoilers    Ahead

We have been watching some tough, violent, though compelling TV shows including Walking Dead, Peaky Blinders, Vikings, Handmaids Tale, Game of Thrones.

Here is one sample from Walking Dead.



I suggested that some calmer fare was in order so last Saturday we watched La La Land. Although Margaret enjoyed it in the end, she commented part way through that it was fairy floss!

Here is the opening scene, which you might argue supports her contention ...



... though I would argue that it is a positive, vibrant, infectious response to the frustration of a freeway traffic jam.

I expected it to be a good movie, after all, it won 5 Academy Awards, and I wasn't disappointed.

La La Land breathes new life into an old art form that many have thought irrelevant to modern culture.

Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) meet often. The first time was after the traffic jam at the beginning, and that meeting did not go well. She gave him the bird. But they kept "running into each other" and resisted the obvious attraction as can be seen in the "A Lovely Night Scene".



Beautifully acted, lit, filmed, sung and danced!

Eventually they bow to the inevitable and admit their love.

They both have dreams. Mia to be a successful actress, Seb to open a jazz club.

In more conventional musicals they would find a way to stay together and realise their dreams, but not in this story! They have to part to achieve their career desires.

Their final acceptance of their separation is brilliantly displayed at the end of the film. It is five years later. Mia has a successful film career and is married, with children. On a night out with her husband, she enters the Jazz club that Sebastian has opened, and we get an alternative version of the story, as imagined by Mia ...



As the film leaves her reverie and returns to reality Sebastian is playing the piano, but the melody is not resolved, it needs two more notes to reach a cadence. Is this a sign that Sebastian still has hopes for their relationship? The final scene, where they smile at each other from across the room, signals their mutual acceptance of their parting.

The final 9 and a half minutes elevates this movie from a very good one to a great one.

The music finally resolves with the "The End" screen.