An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Elle Fanning, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, it was just before I started to watch that I discovered that it was actually Max Minghella’s first directing effort. Well, it was pretty obvious that it was his first movie as a director and he will need to put some extra effort with his future directing projects if he ever wants to reach the level of his father, the late Anthony Minghella. I mean, even if the guy tried to make the whole thing look artsy fancy, he never managed to really hide the fact that the story was after all terribly generic and predictable. Another issue was that the whole thing was also rather tone-deaf. Indeed, some bits were pretty gritty but, as the movie moved along, they kept accumulating some very old clichés. Eventually, what was the point? Maybe they tried to be sarcastic or critical about the whole business around the popular singing talent shows but I think that it would be giving this movie too much credit. At least, Elle Fanning delivered another really solid performance, in fact, she pretty much carried the whole thing on her shoulders and, without her, I’m not sure that the damned thing would have been really watchable. Anyway, to conclude, even if I didn’t have some huge expectations, I was rather surprised by how underwhelming this movie turned out to be and I think it might be worth a look but only for die-hard fans of Elle Fanning.