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Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I normally see Steve Martin involved with rather goofy movies like 'Father of the Bride', 'Looney Tunes:Back in Action' or 'The Three Amigos' but I hadn't seen him before in more serious roles as this! The music was quite good but was rather disappointed. Since this is suppose to be a musical, they just lip synced the old songs then use their original voice. Sure Steve Martin has a good voice like why hide it, yknow?The choreography was brilliant, every single actor danced so brilliantly that I forgot they were actors, lol! I thought the storyline was really good but depressing. Steve Martin's character should've left his wife for the ex school teacher. The amount of love they had for each other was great, they needed to run away and not come back! It's too bad they didn't do it from the beginning and that way, things will be better for the couple! It's not a great movie but it's good enough. I give this 8/10!

No matter how much you may hate the depressive story, you simply have to love it for the amazing charm of its ingenious innovative qualities of producing magic by the astounding imagination of the composition of the songs and their presentation. The dreariest of humdrum worlds in the exasperating void of the American depression in Chicago in the 1930s is suddenly whisked away by a song performed like in a dream of marvellous revelation and irresistible cheer. This is cinematographic magic at its best, mixing nightmare reality with the sublimation of poetry and music, and for me the most important character of all, hitting the nail and perfecting the moody setting of the drama, is the stammering Vernel Bagneris as The Accordion Man, a very secondary inferior by-character, but his appearance in all his pathetic misery completes and perfects the poetry. This is indeed a film to watch with very mixed feelings, but the dreamworks could never be more efficient than contrasted with the worst gutter visits of reality.

I don't usually seek out musicals, but this one was quite an experience. First off, those who don't particularly like musicals probably won't think twice about not seeing this, but it is worth a watch. Now, onto what I liked about the film. I thought that the musical selections were incredible, and there wasn't a single song I didn't like. Perhaps I'm biased because I love music from this era, but whatever. I also loved the set design, costumes and choreography which I thought were amazing. It was like a Fred Astaire musical, but in color, if I had to make a comparison (even though I've only seen clips of Astaire). And the schoolteacher he meets is like his Ginger Rogers (with shades of Jean Harlow and Mae West). Another thing I thought was ingenious was the way in which the musical numbers were presented. Instead of happening directly within the story, which most of the time takes you out of the cinematic experience (after all, who really breaks into song in real life?), they present all but one of the songs as fantasy/dream sequences which are obviously lip-synced. This is probably the greatest innovation the film makes. Other than that, I noticed little things (aided by internet research while I watched it), like a recreation of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks painting in one scene. The title is taken from a 1936 Irving Berlin musical and song (which I might want to check out, although the movie itself was adapted from a British miniseries), and one scene features two of the main characters recreating a scene from a Fred Astaire musical. There's also a scene where Christopher Walken gives an impressive dance (and striptease). Hell, the entire cast gives great dancing performances. One scene I liked in particular involved a teacher and her class full of schoolchildren. However, I get to what isn't so great about the film. For one, Steve Martin's character is a philanderer, habitual liar and all-around jackass who, if it weren't for his optimistic musings, would be pretty hard to get behind and root for. I didn't feel that many of the characters outside of the main three really had any depth to them whatsoever. Arthur's wife, in particular, got short shrift in this respect. Also, without the musical numbers, the movie would be goddamn depressing. In fact, the movie just gets more depressing as it goes along and more bad things happen to the principal characters. This makes the musical numbers even more of a necessity because these eventually are the only uplifting moments in the film. Perhaps, this is trying to say something about the nature of music in life, that it brings happiness and joy into what is essentially a dull and heartbreaking experience (and set, literally, in the Great Depression). If so, then it made its point very well. This brings me to the end (SPOILER!), which I felt was kind of a cheat in a way. It spent the entire movie building on this depression, and then it opts to end it happily. Seeing as how this movie works as a tribute to musicals past, maybe this was its way of not deviating too far from those previous films. But then again, it could have been another dream sequence. Who knows? I'll probably need to watch it again to be able to tell. Overall, this was definitely worth the time I put into watching it, and I really want to download the soundtrack now.

This not very well known and dismissed musical surprised me with how good it was. Under the glossy production design and snappy musical numbers, there's a very dark center to the film, as its characters struggle through the Great Depression and their own desperation. It put me in mind of the depression-era musicals like "42nd Street," in which landing a part in a chorus line could mean the difference between eating and starving, and people put on a show more out of grim determination than through the true desire to burst into song. Maybe it's this quality that resulted in the film being a box office bomb upon its release.Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters and especially Christopher Walken do smashing work in this movie. Walken shows that pizazz and attitude can go a long way toward overcoming limitations as a singer and dancer.Grade: A-