A soft musical that might have you leaving the theater in a good mood, but doesn’t stay with you long afterwards.
It’s about a frayed record label executive who’s watched his indie boutique turn corporate (Mark Ruffalo) and thinks Keira Knightley’s fresh voice will be his way back to…the middle? Along the way, we learn that she just got dumped by her rock-star-on-the-rise boyfriend (Adam Levine, who may be called “Dave Kohl” but really seems to be playing himself), and Ruffalo’s estranged wife is still at least somewhat in the picture. Also, he has a “fourteen” year old tart-in-training of a daughter Hailee Steinfeld (who couldn’t pass for 14 if you asked Stevie Wonder). Will Ruffalo and Knightley get together? Does the movie really even care?
What Works: Parts of this movie are unbelievably cheesy…and those are the good parts. When the movie is trying (always too hard) to be a cynical inside-the-music-biz drama, it’s not quite as in-the-know as it would like to be. But when it’s going for gooey moments of pure joy—-like Knightley’s friend James Corden daring people not to dance to a lively song—-or Ruffalo watching Knightley perform and mentally placing instruments around her…well, that’s when the movie really works.
What Doesn’t: Some of the songs are catchier than others, but it’s telling that the movie’s own advertisements use Adam Levine’s cover of Knightley’s song “Lost Stars” which the film tells us is infinitely inferior. See, Knightley’s character’s delicate and achingly tender songs are supposed to be a breath of fresh air, but it’s revealing that the movie’s own ads seem to prefer the more pop versions. And I think that’s because Knightley’s music in the movie largely sucks, and she actually has a pretty flat, almost-timid voice…we’re clubbed over the head with how “authentic” her music is supposed to be, but it never comes across that way. It’s the exact opposite of the songs in this director’s previous film “Once,” which did come across as genuinely delicate, haunting melodies. Everything Knightley sings is self-serious Starbucks music that’s easy to forget the next day. That’s a pretty big problem for a music-based movie.
Also, why is Ruffalo’s character so dated and mildly deranged? You don’t see him twitching through meetings or stomping next to Knightley’s performance and think “this is a character I want to see more of,” you think “Is this guy nuts or just pretending to be?” And the movie never seems to make up its mind if we’re supposed to root for him to get with Knightley or not…the romance aspect feels undercooked and superfluous.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Better songs, more genuine chemistry between Ruffalo/Knightley, and work on that connection-to-the-soul the movie clearly wants to have.