Well, color me surprised. I actually had a pretty good time with this lightweight musical romp.
This is a thoroughly well-directed movie, which was shocking to me. There is quite a bit of thoughtful camera placement that visually emphasises how the characters are feeling about the events that unfold around them.
Musical numbers are a surprisingly difficult thing to get right, and I thought this movie managed to pull off some pretty spectacular ones. There is a great deal of variety to the visual presentation of each musical sequence, with characters and camera moving around with some fun choreography.
I could tell that these filmmakers were really trying to make this movie as good as it could be. Their effort shows and mostly pays off.
As for plot, it's very narratively slight; it's full of contrivances and forced conflicts that never once felt substantial or surprising or meaningful. Because of this, I'll probably be forgetting about this movie very quickly.
There's also a sequence in which a montage is shown made up of scenes from earlier in the movie, and I thought it was hilariously clumsy in how it was put together.
But still, I thought this was an unabashedly sweet, charming, and pleasantly competent little musical adventure. It'll be good for the family.
