Seamless screen partnership and chemistry enhance ‘La La Land’s’ allure

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in “La La Land”

The new Ryan Gosling-Emma Stone starrer, “La La Land,” is winning plaudits and awards all over with its bittersweet depiction of life in the land of failed dreams and aborted ambitions, Hollywood.

Aside from reaping its own harvest of honors, the production should be cited for reviving viewers’ interest in the musical film form, which has lately been upstaged by other, trendier formats.
Other movie musicals should be shot and screened posthaste, to turn this renewed interest into a film trend in 2017-’18.

In addition to singing and dancing its way into viewers’ hearts and to the top of the hit parade, “La La Land” should be cited for providing its stars with a “surprising” showcase of stellar versatility.

Who knew that exceptional thespians like Stone and Gosling also had it in them to sing and tap-dance with similarly standout verve—plus the icing on the cake of Gosling’s “believable” piano-playing?

It’s an overwhelming display of the extravagant fruits of talent and training that should “shame” one-trick performing ponies in the biz to jazz up their own acts.

Gosling’s spot-on portrayal of the gifted pianist forced to compromise his talent is matched by Stone’s depiction of a fine actress who is similarly shunned and shamed by Hollywood’s dense disdain.

For six long years, she’s been trying to get the attention her obvious talent deserves, and she’s at the end of her tattered rope—until Gosling comes into her life and gives her the loving boost she needs to hold on to her dream.

In turn, she renews his faith in his gift, so they become a “you and me against the world” team determined to prove the entire entertainment capital wrong!

Will they succeed—and triumph? Or, will they flounder and fail like many faceless thousands foiled by Hollywood’s cruel exploitation and rejection? In addition, will their love survive?

The film by Damien Chazelle has a “five years later” coda that answers those key questions—and that denouement has a “surprise” twist of its own that makes “La La Land” a radical departure from how “show biz sagas” are traditionally concluded.

All told, however, the film’s best suit is its leads’ “unexpected” musical excellence, which adds a new dimension to their already proven thespic repute.

Best of all, they’re able to fuse all of their performing skills and gifts into a seamless screen partnership and “chemistry” that fare well in comparison to celebrated screen team-ups in musical movies like Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly and Donald O’ Connor in “Singin’ in the Rain,” Jane Powell and Howard Keel in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers;”

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in “The Band Wagon,” Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in “My Fair Lady,” Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in “Top Hat,” Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in “An American in Paris,” Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes;”

Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in “Babes in Arms,” Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” and Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine in “Can-Can.”