I rank this film as a total disaster.
One of the basic requirement I would consider to acting in a musical is to be able to sing and act at the ***same*** time!!! (Or, in the case of most musical films, mime to the playback machine and act at the same time). None of the actors in this movie give the slightest indication they are capable of doing this. Instead, whenever a musical number starts up, they almost visibly switch from acting mode to singing mode, with no continuity in performance.
And on top of that, the song numbers don't fit into the story at all. It is EXTREMELY obvious that the songs are standalone pop compositions, that do not link to the narrative structure. Sure, some regular musicals occasionally have a number that adds flavor to the story and have very little dramatic impetus, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Here, ALL the songs are just emotional padding. It would have been a lot easier to just tack them onto the soundtrack as basic emotional cues, like in a regular movie, and forget the musical idea at all.
To me, the ideal situation is a musical is to have the character or characters involved in the action. The music is playing in underscore behind the scene. And then, almost imperceptibly, the dialog just so happens to become rhythmical; the character may start humming or something, and almost before you know it you get a musical number. One that seamlessly integrates into the storyline, giving the feeling that it just naturally occurs there. That way, you at least temporarily get by the unusual conceit of having a song pop up in the first place - even if common sense dictates it is unnatural.
One of the basic requirement I would consider to acting in a musical is to be able to sing and act at the ***same*** time!!! (Or, in the case of most musical films, mime to the playback machine and act at the same time). None of the actors in this movie give the slightest indication they are capable of doing this. Instead, whenever a musical number starts up, they almost visibly switch from acting mode to singing mode, with no continuity in performance.
And on top of that, the song numbers don't fit into the story at all. It is EXTREMELY obvious that the songs are standalone pop compositions, that do not link to the narrative structure. Sure, some regular musicals occasionally have a number that adds flavor to the story and have very little dramatic impetus, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Here, ALL the songs are just emotional padding. It would have been a lot easier to just tack them onto the soundtrack as basic emotional cues, like in a regular movie, and forget the musical idea at all.
To me, the ideal situation is a musical is to have the character or characters involved in the action. The music is playing in underscore behind the scene. And then, almost imperceptibly, the dialog just so happens to become rhythmical; the character may start humming or something, and almost before you know it you get a musical number. One that seamlessly integrates into the storyline, giving the feeling that it just naturally occurs there. That way, you at least temporarily get by the unusual conceit of having a song pop up in the first place - even if common sense dictates it is unnatural.