David Len Allen

Wow. Sound, photography, color styling excellent. Settings and costuming great. Script, for what it is, good--but focused heavily on a court trial and mental illness. The music, the original score--in the same Oscar-winning vein as last time. The song score-very well produced and performed in character by the two leads--HOWEVER...The songs were the musical punchlines like I used to play on the piano at the melodrama house where four to eight bars were enough to get the joke across. These, of course, were full 2-3 minute renditions that sort of went on fantasy excursions not unlike The Band Wagon which was featured prominently in the background. The songs would have been better served beginning intimately, then modulating into full blown scoring covering action sequences progressing the story. Too often everything stopped--leading one to understand that there wasn't "that" much there to begin with. Mr. Phoenix and Ms. Germanotta were excellent in their characterizations and delivery. I was aware of the master technique on display, but to me they didn't disappeared into their roles.

One point: "If They Could See Me Now" which Terry and her friend Annie sing, was from "Sweet Charity" that didn't premiere on Broadway until 1966, a year after the action of this film takes place (1965). And "Angel in the Morning", featured in the background soundtrack, was composed in 1967! Oh well. So much for anachronistic continuity.