Annette (2021)

First things first, hats off to Adam Driver and to Marion Cotillard for trying something just that little bit different. That said, in my view they didn't pull it off. From the opening scene that looked like something from "West Side Story" we are introduced to "Henry McHenry" (Driver) an American stand up comedian who is about as funny as halitosis, and that for me started the slippery slope upon which this film descended. He is having a relationship with singing sensation "Ann" (Cotillard) and after a while the eponymous bairn arrives - doing a remarkably effective impression of "Pinocchio" (only without the nose). Things in the family take some rather tragic turns, but salvation appears for Driver as the baby has an almost angelic singing voice - and soon she is a roaring success... It's all just bit too surreal, the whole thing - and it's really not helped by much Adam Driver's tone deaf singing, some rather implausible plot twists and an ending that though fitting is all just a bit too little too late after what was for me a very long 2 hrs and 20 minutes. I could have done with more of Cotillard, and her signing - but as it is, what we are essentially given is a film with so much emphasis on the look, feel and stylisation of the thing that the story gets thrown under the pram. Not for me, sorry...