connie wilson – Google

I like Adam Driver, and I like Marion Cotillard. I'm not sure why Adam Driver wants to sing in films, but he has proven that he does, as with "A Marriage Story" previously. The use of dialogue that is sung made me think of the TV series (failed) that the creator of "Hill Street Blues" tried to launch back in the day (it didn't win over audiences who preferred the dialogue to be spoken). The use of an obvious wooden dummy to portray Baby Annette: odd, but, then, the entire movie is odd. When Baby Annette comes to life, late in the film, and is portrayed by Devyn McDowell (a "real" girl) and Devyn and Adam sing to each other, I was "in" to this culmination of the film's moral message that the character Henry McHenry has managed to kill everything he should have been trying to defend and love and, therefore, tragedy has completely overtaken his once-promising career (Henry was a very strange "dark" comedian, who was, initially, idolized by his fans, but he got so dark that they turned on him, much like George Carlin at the end of his career when he tried to convince audiences that suicide was "funny"). One reviewer dubbed it "the strangest musical you'll see this season." The idea of a reversal in the career fortunes of Marion Cotillard's opera singer Ann and Henry's darkly weird comic has been done to death in "A Star Is Born" so expect some moments of deja vu. The director of this Cannes film was also responsible for "Holy Motors," which was one of the weirdest movies ever, but I actually liked the moral theme that is driven home in this one, in a prison scene with "Baby Annette" and Henry (Adam Driver). I'm not the first person to say that Adam can quit singing any time, as he isn't that great a singer, and one does wonder why the filmmakers felt it necessary to use a wooden dummy rather than the outstanding Devyn McDowell throughout the film, but I didn't hate it the way I hated "Holy Motors," so that's progress. It's definitely "avant garde" and creative, with able support from Simon Helberg ("The Big Bang Theory") as Ann's piano accompanist and, later, the director of the orchestra that exploits "Baby Annette" as a singing sensation. It's safe to say that Adam Driver's Henry McHenry will not win any Father of the Year awards and the singing (by Driver) can stop any time, but it was an interesting---if over-long---trip down some thematic roads we've all been down before.