It is every artist’s dream: a famous person stumbles upon you. He loves you— he spends an evening with you and promptly invites you to sing with him onstage. This is exactly what happens in the first ten minutes of Bradley Cooper’s “A Star is Born.”
Having this scene right off the bat meant that there was not really much explication of the characters, which was a bit confusing. The movie jumped right into the thick of it with a famous, alcoholic singer Jackson Maine, or Jack (Bradley Cooper), stumbling upon sultry Ally (Lady Gaga) singing a song in a drag bar. He went in for a drink, and just had to meet her after witnessing her breathtaking performance.
It is a little cliche, and even more so because it happens right away with no real context.
From there the movie pretty much goes where it is expected to—Ally and Jack begin a romance, and Ally is thrust into the throes of fame.
As the movie progresses, we get into the deeper stuff: the struggles of being famous, the issues with Jack’s alcoholism, and Ally’s desire to stay true to herself despite the pressure to form an image.
This content was well-meaning, but fell short because of some poorly placed shots and a choppy plotline.
Overall, the plot had gaps, and they made the supposed emotional end feel anticlimactic. Everything happened so quickly and how it was expected to, so there was a lot of discord yet predictability between scenes. At one point, Jack showed up at someone’s house who he had apparently known forever and who he was close to, but it was never explained how. There were also a few moments that were obviously supposed to be cutesy little inside jokes with the character, but came off as awkward.
Moments that were supposed to be very emotional made me feel nothing, and usually I am a crier.
There were also several seemingly random, outlandish scenes, such as when Ally was invited to Saturday Night Live and the Emmys.
The one thing that stood out in this movie was the vocals. Lady Gaga’s voice was raw and impressive, and Bradley Cooper’s was surprisingly good as well.
Their acting was also first-rate, and Cooper’s portrayal of an alcoholic and drug-addict was well done. He captured the look and sound of a man completely lost to addiction.
Other than that, however, this movie did not live up to the hype, at least for me. I give it a 4/10, for fairly good acting and singing, but no emotional plot and awkward scenes. It could have been a great movie, but fell just short.
