Movie Monday: Annette Review with Spoilers

So this is a movie that is on Amazon Prime right now... and it is a weird one. It is a musical about relationships from a French director... and originally it was supposed to be an album from the band Spark. I knew basically nothing about this movie when I saw it- and I think that was kind of a good thing.

So the movie stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotilard as an "it" couple of sorts. She's a very famous opera singer and he's a very famous Comedian. His career is so popular at the start of the movie- and hers is kind of rising. And they do news reports about the two getting engaged, they sing a song about how much they love each other... they get married and then they announce that Ann (Cotilard) is expecting a baby... Baby Annette who... is maybe the most interesting character in the movie.

This might be a spoiler but... throughout the movie- Baby Annette is played by a doll. My theory for this? Annette was just a prop in the movie... At first I feel like they just have a baby for their careers to be more popular. They were maybe in love with each other- but I think really they just wanted to have a nice image. That's why Ann dumps Simon Helberg's character after she meets Henry. They're really just looking to boost each other's image. And Ann uses Annette as a prop (spoilers) after she dies her voice can be heard through Ann as a way of haunting Henry... Henry however uses this to exploit his baby and makes money off of having concerts of baby Annette's voice... so They both use her voice as a prop.

There's a lot more to this movie than that... but I'm going to skip to the very end on the moment that I thought was kind of the most heartbreaking of the movie. Henry McHenry ends up in jail for his crimes and Annette visits him... and she changes from the doll Annette used throughout the movie to a real girl... and she tells Henry, "Now you have no one to love." And he responds by saying "Why can't I love you." And that... kind of just got me. He doesn't really love her- you can tell by the delivery of the line that he's just looking for a person that he can love... not someone that he actually does love. It just... kind of broke my heart.

Another detail of the movie that I liked is the standup routines of Henry McHenry. At first he's beloved and he tells some very offensive jokes... the second set we see when he's in Vegas... he pretty much tells the same exact jokes the same exact way... but now people don't like him. Ann is suddenly more famous than Henry- so any jokes he makes poking fun at her or about their relationship in any way... the audience is just AGAINST. Very vocally also. Driver thanked Bill Burr and Chris Rock for this movie and honestly... yeah you can tell he got inspiration from those two comedians particularly. Chris Rock was probably one of the first successful comedians to tell really offensive jokes, and Bill Burr's whole thing is that he complains about everything and he kind of roasts his audience if they boo him... and Henry McHenry does that in this movie.

There are also some great play within a play (movie) moments in it... and I really like those. I feel like this might not have been a movie I liked... but the second act of the movie kind of changes things and makes them a little more interesting and... just really good. I'm also a huge fan of Adam Driver, I really liked the music in the movie, I loved the way the set design was... I just overall really liked it even though I don't always like these artsy relationship movies... this one made sense to me- I liked the symbolism and it was just good overall.

Alright- that is everything! I hope you guys liked this review despite it being a spoiler review of a movie I don't think a lot of people have seen... it's still a good one.

Bye!

-Shannon