La La Land...

I went to see La La Land at the Rex Cinema, tucked away in a side-street in Ulverston. No swanky multiplex, the Rex is cinema as it used to be. The lady who sold me my ticket looked me up and down, hesitated, then gave me a consessionary ticket. With no other cinema-goers in sight, we had a short conversation about the difficulties of deciding whether a customer is of pensionable age or not, and the potential for causing offense by getting it wrong.

There were only about a dozen people in the cinema. La La Land may be hot property, but this was Monday night in Ulverston. After the adverts, the projectionist appeared in the auditorium to tell us there was some problem with the main feature and there would be a few minutes delay (once the film started I saw that a broken film played a part, coincidentally, in La La Land itself).

The film was… OK. The critics loved it, the public too, but I didn’t find it terribly engaging (I looked at my watch a couple of times). The relationship between Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) was underwhelming, and I found myself not caring very much whether it worked out or not. Both seemed bereft of charisma, and didn’t generate much sparkle when together. When they broke up, it barely registered.

Their dancing was OK, their singing too, but no more than that. La La Land was supposed to be a return to the classic Hollywood musical, but it lacked the vivacity or brio of, say, Singing in the Rain. Fred and Ginger they ain’t. City of Stars was a pleasant coda to many of the scenes, but the other tunes were instantly forgettable.

So ‘OK’ is about the best I can do for a review. I might have had more fun watching Vin Diesel in a dirty vest, outrunning a fireball…

Ulverston at twilight...