La La Land was destined to be a beautiful story about the strife of two artists who stumbled upon one another and feel in love. It had all the ingredients for the perfect love story. Singing, dancing, sunsets, accidental meetings, and of course, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. How could this movie go wrong?
Certainly anyone who has seen Crazy Stupid Love was already brimming at the idea of another movie starring Stone and Gosling. Crazy Stupid Love after all was a masterpiece - romantic comedy gold. The plot line wasn't too cheesy but just cheesy enough. The characters were relatable and also slightly out of reach. It was sad but cute and sweet but fun. La La Land was not.
Remarkably, La La Land failed to evoke any real emotion. It wasn't inspiring, or happy, or even sad. It simply was. The quasi-musical romantic comedy could have been so much more but it failed both in its writing and execution.
For one, while leading stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling tell an impeccable love story, neither can sing or dance, and for a movie like this, as it turns out, that's a huge problem.
While La La Land doesn't stand as a traditional musical, music is seamlessly steeped into the story line, especially considering Gosling's character as the jazz dreamer who plays piano and wishes to open his own club. The piano playing is whimsical and the music overall with help from John Legend is quite enjoyable, but it stops there.
The movie's performances can't be described as anything other than amateur. Better singing can be found in the average local karaoke bar and better dancing is likely to be found on Dancing With The Stars.
The point of La La Land is not an episode of Glee or your standard reality show where sub par singing and dancing are okay because that's part of the show. It's quite the opposite in that La La Land so firmly asserts that it is artistic while being clearly not.
Stone and Gosling fail to convince that they are adequate singers much less dancers begging one to question why doubles weren't used - a ploy that certainly would have enhanced the value and authenticity of this film as "artistic."
But maybe that's just the problem of Hollywood today. Trading out the authentic under the false notion that people would rather see stars than see something real. It's why still today we see so many white celebrities playing ethnic roles including Emma Stone herself who played a character of Hawaiian and Asian descent, which she is not, when the role clearly should have and could have went to someone who fits the actual ethnic makeup.
La La Land's failure to focus the attention to real singers and dancers is just that lack of authenticity that Hollywood loves in exchange for the dollars that stars like Stone and Gosling are sure to bring it.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling didn't have to sing and dance in this movie. Someone could have done it for them, or, better yet, they could have avoided the singing and dancing entirely while others danced around them. In fact, the opening number of the movie does just that - letting the professionals take the stage while Stone and Gosling are no where to be found. The first scene is what the movie could have been - a musical that seems to be happening around an adjacent story.
But unfortunately, the shortcomings of La La Land don't just end with the poor artistic execution, but also with the story line itself.
The story lines just never seem to quite come together with minor characters dipping in and out for reasons that add nothing to the story line besides time. The story has no structure, follows no arc, and is missing a climax.
And above all, a love story maybe it's not, but a la la land it is indeed - the idea that you could maybe have everything. That your dreams will come true, that you'll find your true love and that you'll end up together. What La La Land maybe does miraculously well is acknowledge is that la la lands aren't real.
The dreams of the characters do come true, but at the loss of each other in a final heartbreaking scene where you realize the characters aren't together although they might have been had their dreams not gotten in the way. La La Land offers could haves and alternatives to a final unsatisfying true that la la lands don't exist and at the end your left knowing that the movie you signed up for is not the movie you got.
Everything La La Land wants you to believe it is, it's not. If you're looking to feel warm, fuzzy, and happy in the way you think La La Land will produce, well, you're better off going to see Sing.
