Annette

It's been a while since I went on Amazon Prime for a movie. By a while, I actually mean a month. So here I am with the musical Annette, the first English film by French director Leos Carax (Holy Motors), who co-wrote the screenplay with the songwriters, Ron and Russell Mael of the band Sparks. What did they create?

"What?" might be the question.

Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) and Ann Defrasnaoux (Marion Cotillard) get married. He's a stand-up comedian and she's an Opera soprano. They have a baby girl, Annette, who is played by a marionette (Yes, seriously). Henry's career flatlines while Ann's star rises. A particularly unfunny routine, and Henry's outrage over the audience's outrage, seals the deal.

One day, Henry and Ann go on their yacht. She goes overboard and he's stuck with the puppet. Eventually, Henry realizes Annette is a budding soprano herself. So he and Ann's former accompanist (Simon Helberg) decide to take her on tour. How long will that last before Henry's attitude craters his life?

That describes around 90 minutes of the film.

It opens with an ensemble number as the cast (Sparks and Carax, included) start recording the opening number, So May We Start, before they leave the studio and walk around LA to sing it. Yeah. Anyway, it's about forty minutes before Annette puts in an appearance. The lead-up is filled with OK songs that are mainly talk-sung. Expect a lot of repeated lyrics; Ann and Henry's love song is We Love Each Other So Much, a title that makes up about half the lyrics. Henry's meltdown song an hour in, You Used To Laugh, is the first entertaining song. It's surprisingly entertaining for this kind of song.

Henry is crass and rude, while Ann's simply good. We don't get context to how their relationship started. But it deteriorates somewhat quickly. Henry is somewhat sympathetic when he sings out his insecurities. But he's so hard to like. Their story is so dull I barely cared about the tragedy. It eventually got better when Annette took center stage. Her rising stardom made me think of a wackier take on Tommy. The wackiest part comes from a court clerk (Kait Tenison) suffering from hay fever.

What I found objectively perfect is its technicalities. The cinematography and production design is superb. Whether it's Annette's surreal concerts or Ann's opera performances (which has her step into a real forest at one point), this is a great movie to look at. Henry and Ann's mad waltz during their stormy yacht cruise is perfectly weird; the rear-projected storm fits the mood. This and You Used To Laugh are highlights of the editing and sound design. Annette herself sits atop the uncanny valley; there's still some great artistry to make her move.

Annette is a visually appealing and dramatically dull musical story. Its title character needs some time to get used to. But it makes some thematic sense, overall. It's certainly destined to join The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a midnight movie one day. Indeed, I found plenty of opportunity to call back at the movie during its 140 minutes. That made much of the movie bearable. See the movie for much more I haven't alluded to. It's free on Amazon Prime.