Day 49
2/18/17
I finally did it. I watched the movie/musical that everyone was raving about, “Lalaland” (and I did it super right, in a reclining-seat almost-empty movie theater in Manhattan). Warning: spoiler alert, read the rest at risk of plot revelation!
Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, it was a feel-good classical fairy-tale romance that got the audience hooked from the opening scene, where everyone on the modern day LA traffic-laden highway got out of their cars and performed a choreographed song and dance. The atypical meeting of the main characters on this very highway, where one of them flips the other off, is followed by a couple more chance encounters, which progress to a tender budding romance and finally blooms to full-blown love. The musical numbers augment the good vibes of the film, and take us on an emotional roller-coaster ride throughout the events experienced by the characters.
Unfortunately, the film concludes with a non-fairy-tale ending, albeit a much more realistic one. But the disappointment of the audience is placated by a final touching sing-song whirl of the main characters sharing a vision of what could have been, what could have happened differently under better circumstances, in a more ideal world. This last scene was the premise of this imaginary “Lalaland,” where all the dreams come true.