Directed by Leos Carax from a screenplay by Russell Mael, Annette is baffling, weird, and pretentious, with only a few moments of melodramatic gusto that dip beneath the film’s surface to reveal something intriguingly dark and reflective. Despite its best efforts, including its sometimes riveting, but overall flat, songs, Annette isn’t resonant and its storyline fails to come together.
Annette follows the story of Henry (Adam Driver), a stand-up comedian who is in a romantic relationship with Ann (Marion Cotillard), a talented opera singer. The pair have a whirlwind romance as all eyes turn to them throughout their dating life, marriage, and the arrival of their first child, a daughter they name Annette, who has a unique gift that takes the world by storm. In the public eye, Ann and Henry seem like they have it all, but beneath all the glitz and glamour there is a darkness that lingers and rears its head — through jealousy and violence — as it affects their relationship and lives in every way imaginable.
Annette often seems like an analysis of fame as every milestone in Ann and Henry’s relationship is reported on by Showbiz News, a spoof on the many gossip-focused entertainment news shows. But while the film touches upon these things and how Ann and Henry’s romance is seen through the eyes of the public, how Annette’s abilities are received, and how fame and public discourse can even affect personal outcomes, there is very little payoff that amounts from any of these things. Deeper themes are discarded for theatricality and there’s a frustrating amount of pretentiousness that filters throughout the film that ultimately prevents Carax from further exploration beyond a surface level.
The film moves through emotional extremes, and it’s specifically obsessed with Henry’s, but it isn’t interested in sitting with any of the feelings it brings to the surface. Cotillard, for all her tremendous talent, barely takes center stage in all of this as her character is more of a passive onlooker of the events transforming her life. Even as several women come forward with abuse allegations against Henry, something which plays out very publicly, Ann is frustratingly silent and unmoved. She is underdeveloped and underutilized, a vehicle to drive Henry’s actions and to move the plot forward without a single moment of focus on her interiority. Do the allegations bring her despair? Does she feel she has no way out of her relationship with Henry? It’s all unclear as there is little time spent with her. Ann's entire relationship with Henry is defined by a song where they repeat — over and over again — how they love each other very much before one plot is discarded for another.
It’s hard to draw the parameters of their relationship when everything about it is seen through the lens of fame. It’s the opposite of A Star is Born, which had similar themes about the entertainment industry, but which elevated the tension and drama between its leads by looking in even as the impact of their public actions remained an important part of the story. Annette seems so occupied with the melodrama of it all, which would be fine if there was a better handle on the several plot threads introduced throughout the film. But its message, about the awful superficiality of fame and the violence, control, and power men wield, gets jumbled up by the end, too self-indulgent and messily handled to be truly effective.
Despite its clear criticisms of fame and Henry’s rising jealousy of Ann’s, the film is devoid of much substance. The plot unfolds but, while it’s weird enough to keep watching, it’s too wishy washy to be taken seriously. Adam Driver does a tremendous job of playing an unfunny comedian whose anger and violence is bubbling under the surface as Henry becomes increasingly unhinged. His performance is brimming with intensity, but even that isn’t enough to overcome the overstuffed, vapid script and incohesive execution. Annette is extravagant and ambitious, but it’s also frustrating, pompous and emotionally flat.
Annette will be released in theaters on August 6, 2021 and will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video on August 20. The film is 140 minutes long and is rated R for sexual content including some nudity, and for language.
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