Annette Movie Review

Annette (2021)

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Written by: Ron Mael & Russell Mael (original story by)
Directed by: Leos Carax
Starring: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A stand-up comedian and his opera singer wife have a two year old daughter with a surprising gift.

Verdict
What does it mean? That's the inescapable question this movie presents. Is Annette a marionette for ease of production or does it represent the artifice of marriage and celebrity? That's part of the intrigue of this movie. It gives you just enough to seem like a metaphor, but not quite enough to explain it. This movie's meaning could be almost anything. This intentionally challenges movie standards. While it's also unexpectedly a musical, I grew tired of the indulgences.
Skip it.

Review
I saw Carax's film Holy Motors and that is so ambiguous you can derive almost any message you want from it. It's a befuddling movie, one that required a rewatch that I wasn't willing to provide.

I'm impressed about how this movie does what it does. It's not easy to create a movie that's in stark contrast to typical movies while skating the edge of incoherence. I consider that an achievement. The movie makes you wonder what's going on and what it means while giving you plenty of room to guess.

This has a very meta introduction, with director, writer, and later stars singing about the movie they're in and the imminent start. This is not a traditional movie. If you're familiar with Carax, that shouldn't be a surprise.

Henry (Adam Driver) is a  performer with a rambling monologue as he criticizes comedy and in part celebrity. It's a lot of talk with very little substance. It's also part musical with the audience participating in his show in a way that's not realistic. 

Thirty minutes in and there isn't much to this movie. Henry and Ann (Marion Cotillard) fall in love. "They love each other so much." We know this because they sing that line so many times.

Adam Driver, a marionette, Marion Cotillard play Henry, Annette, Ann.

This is a commentary on fame and celebrity, but it's also so vague that you can ascribe any number of ideas to it. This is about romance, marriage, and clashing personalities. What does the marionette baby mean? It's certainly creepy and surreal.
There's certainly a level of skill to make a movie like this that causes you to wonder what it wants to communicate rather than dismissing it outright.

It's over two hours with a plot that can be summed up in a few sentences. Despite the creativity of the plot and the musical sequences I grew bored with an hour left. I began to wonder if this movie is about how Henry is a bad person. He's never very likable, even from the start. His whole 'comedy' routine is an attempt at being deep without any substance. He's bad for Ann and later Annette.

Adam Driver and a marionette play Henry and Annette.

This is certainly a ride, but I can't recommend it. This is more of a film class movie, something to be studied that simply enjoyed. Maybe this is infused with meaning, maybe it's just a wild ride that only seems deep like Henry's performance.

 I can't deny that the concept is intriguing. Annette is famous, but fake. She's a puppet. Do we see her as that because that's how Henry sees her? Is the ending a clarification for Henry that comes too late? I could almost talk myself into bumping my rating to this of "it depends." It's certainly unique.