I’m usually willing to cut ambitious, ultra-creative movies a lot of slack, but “Annette” rubbed me the wrong way from the get-go and never recovered. I watched all of it because my wife was enjoying it, plus I kept thinking So many critics loved this; it’s got to get better.
Stuff I hated (in no particular order):
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The music all sounded like the same song, with lyrics that were mostly pedantic. (“We love each other so much” repeated about 99 times, for instance.) Aren’t musicals supposed to have a catchy melody now and then?
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Henry’s “comedy” schtick was neither funny nor especially interesting. OK, maybe it was more performance art than comedy, but I couldn’t buy that a packed house would love it or that performances like that could have made him a star.
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The miracle singing baby. Even as a metaphor for … something … no, just, no.
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The main idea – that self-loathing is ultimately destructive and self-fulfilling – isn’t novel, has been done better a thousand times, and just doesn’t merit this level of craft.
Great acting, magnificent cinematography, yada yada yada, but IMO a bad concept with a miserable script.
Tell me what I’m missing!
