I think the peaks of this movie are its first scene, where it peaks musically, and the last one, where it peaks emotionally. In between... Not a fan.

Annette (the character) is a glorious thing to behold, and some of the songs are... Okay. I already can't really remember any of them, maybe I've been listening to too much Sondheim, and the bar's been raised too high.

The earnestness of Cotillard and Driver's performances made me laugh, the fake audiences at Driver's shows so awful they kill those scenes dead as Good Friday, and all of the celeb news stuff struck me as so irritatingly on the nose that it sailed well past the point of being cool, quirky, or insightful, and became sort of childish.

Still, great open and finish, and the scene at the 'Hyperbowl' (more achingly cool European elitism) is visually and atmospherically gorgeous.