Annette: Movie Review

Cast: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, a puppet, Sparks' music

Director: Leos Carax

You will know that you're experiencing a movie in Annette, rather than just seeing it.

In its opening moments, this rock opera will have you make your Marmite decision.

The Cannes 2021 award winner stars Adam Driver as Henry, a narcissistic comedian and Cotillard as his opera-singing girlfriend Ann. The two have met amid a swirl of tabloid obsession and examination (one scene from the showbiz insert labels them "Beauty and the bastard"), and birth a child prodigy that has a talent (and a look) to be seen.

But as Henry's career, which was once in the ascendant, begins to wane, his latent personality traits and anger emerge as jealousy consumes him when Ann's career starts to soar. However, tragedy is waiting in the wings of this musical.

While Annette begins with bluster and energy, it soon begins to fizzle into a pattern similar to many musicals, with lyrics being shoehorned in to fit a narrative. So in parts, Sparks' lyrics perform a necessity rather than an organic feel to the film, and moments become strained in their lyrical execution and subsequent mundanity.

Moments of dialogue within the songs occasionally feel facile and contrite. One song repeats a refrain of "We love each other so much" to love scenes, which in truth add little to Carax's already overused pomp and ceremony.

And yet, Driver retains an utterly compelling screen presence throughout, with the story falling largely on his shoulders. Along with a puppet baby that's the most terrifying child incarnation since Twilight's Renesmee, Driver imbues Henry with much going on below the surface. Cotillard is as eminently watchable as ever also, with her softer edges early on doing nothing to betray the power hidden within Ann. The Big Bang Theory's Simon Helberg fares less well, with his conductor getting less time in the spotlight as the movie progresses.

Ultimately, it has to be said that Annette is a bit too long and occasionally garbled in its 2hr 20 minute execution. But even its flaws are outweighed by the sheer bravado that is on show here - when any director fires any number of ideas at a wall, some inevitably won't stick.

But a large proportion of Annette does stick - if you're willing to suspend some of your disbelief and overlook some of the film's weaker edges, then this is the rock-opera cinema hit you've been waiting for.