Portraits of dreams - LA LA LAND

Yesterday I went to the cinema with a friend of mine to watch La La Land. This film won 7 Golden Globes and it received 14 nominations at the Academy Awards...and I think it deserves them all.

This film is directed by Damien Chazelle and the protagonists are Ryan Gosling (as Sebastian) and Emma Stone (as Mia), who try to fulfil their dreams: he wants to open a club to bring jazz music "back to life", while she wants to be an actress.

(here the trailer)

They both are passionate, they accept compromises because they keep in mind their final goal, but the path isn't easy.
At the end of the film, you don't really know what is right or wrong, if they have made the good decisions or if their lives should have been different. You just stare in front of the screen and accept their choices, because you have spent two hours in a bright and magic bubble, flying above Los Angeles, in that atmosphere full of hopes and happiness between the 50s and the 21st century and you don't want to go back to reality. That's what I felt.

This film is unbelievably astonishing and special: it's extraordinary because the story itself is simple, with themes as love and career ambitions, but you sense that story, you're there with them, walking down the streets, understanding their worries, their fears, their emotions, their special bond.
You just see some pieces of their story, as if you're leafing through an album and memories come back in a hurry: you see the changing of the seasons and their growth in a crowded world, with invisible demons and gentle angels.

I really love the protagonists and I think that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stones are perfect in their roles, because they manage to show all the shades of their characters. Sebastian is a kind of romantic hero who fights for an higher ideal, which is a pure jazz; Mia, also, has her dream, but she is insecure and sometimes she thinks not to be so special. Their bond is really strong: they're like two mirrors, in which they see themselves as they really are on the inside, the magnifying glass which shows what makes them unique not just to everybody, but even to themselves.

The soundtrack is beautiful and, at the end of the film, you go out singing the songs and remembering all the scenes in which they are played. My favourite one is "City Of Stars", which has also a nomination for "best original song" - together with the song "Audition (The fools who dream). I really like also "Mia and Sebastian's Theme" and "Someone In The Crowd".

I suggest to watch this film, even if, maybe, you usually don't like musicals, because it gives you more than a love story with dancing scenes: it makes you think about dreams, showing another option to the answer "what is the meaning of happiness?".

My vote is: 9/10

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Bye for now

Yours, Silvia