Say what you will about Annette, but it is spectacular at the very least because as it’s such a spectacle. This operatic melodrama or melodramatic opera of a musical about a tragically fated love affair of a comedian and a soprano is definitely something to behold. But what…
What is that undefinable something or, more appropriately to this wildly international production, je ne sais quois. What is holding together this laboriously long and exhaustively strange cinematic fantasy? Well, it’s the music, of course. The music is a glue or every proper musical. Created by Spark, whoever they are, the music here is strange, repetitive, unconventional, ranging from Greek chorus style back up singers of the comedian to the epic death scene arias of the soprano. And yet, at times its simply purely melodically haunting, like the deceptively basic and beguilingly irresistible We Love Each Other So Much track, the backbone of the doomed romance. And it’s the very committed performances by legitimately musical age defying Marion Cotillard and the impressively dedicated pale giant Adam Driver, who sang on screen before to much less fanfare in Marriage Story and has obviously taken some singing lessons since. Mind you, this is a story of a couple with a child, but primarily this is very much an Adam Driver show, he is very much in the driving seat of this vehicle. In the movie his vehicle is a Triumph motorcycle, because he’s so hip. Tragically hip, in fact. Loafers and no socks kinda guy. Beanie with a suit kinda guy. You’d wanna slap him if he was any smaller. The thing is he isn’t even a funny comedian. What he does is mostly performance art driven by a sort of inner rage. Eventually the rage spills over into tanking both his act and his personal life. There are interesting relationship dynamics going on there (think The Star is Born) where in a famous couple one star is ascending while the one is descending, since his wife is the one with genuine talent and he’s more of a fad. And then there’s Annette, the titular creepy child of the two. A celebrity child as a prop…that’s done by a prop. A Chucky style gingerhaired doll that (whew) inherits her mother’s voice and morals. And subsequent child talent exploitation. There’s even something of a love triangle, the third wheel being the lovelorn conductor, a man too small and physically tiny to even register next to Driver’s enormous (literal and figurative) appeal, though it plays out mostly posthumously and occasionally just to lift the tone. Is that a lot plot wise? No, not at all, not for the 141 minutes you’re in it. Can it be viewed as a character driven drama then? Absolutely, but prepare for all the singing. There’s so much of it. Cottilard had an opera singing stand in, but majority of the work is done by her and Driver and it’s pretty good. Driver is an actor who tries more than most. The most European of all American actors, he doesn’t shy away from absurd, abstract or abstruse, which makes him fascinating to watch. Not the most natural of singers, for sure, but he manages. Plus there’s such an awesome physicality to him, he’s muscle bound but gaunt at the same time, he hunches, looms, menaces and caresses, he loves and hates on such a physically expressive scale. The man is essentially a sentient mighty oak of surprises and quirks straddling the divide between leading man handsome and weird looking, turning from drama to comedy on a dime. In other words, he’s good. You can just watch him and be satisfied here. Seriously, someone give this guy an Oscar already. Two consecutive nominations for best supporting and best actor just aren't enough. Driver proves time and again that he will do whatever it takes to get that statue, including but not limited to performing cunnilingus (and the rest of the sex scene) while singing. What more can you as from a guy? Seriously. This message is brought to you by Oscar for Adam committee. The doll (though understandable in use) is creepy as dolls are. Well done, but very creepy. This is, essentially, very much a European style arthouse cinematic experience, you should expect the pacing and dynamics accordingly. It isn’t for everyone. It doesn’t have the universal appeal of the recent musical epics like Lalaland and The Greatest Showman. This is the kind of movie where a director is referred to as autheur. One I’m not familiar enough to speak of, but it’s obvious this man would never direct a conventional blockbuster to save his life. But the thing is there’s definitely a space for these kinds of movies there, something strange, something different, something…other. An unconventional beauty. A mesmerizing oddity. And for anyone craving those things…this is just the ticket. It also stands to mention I absolutely love, love that poster.
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