Sorry folks, but for me, a musical absolutely requires professional level singing and dancing. And although Gosling and Stone are great actors and do an excellent job with a fun script, neither one either dances or sings like a professional. Not even close. The result comes across like one of those rather embarrassing and painful high-school musicals that you sit through because your child is in it.

The costumes and set design were great, and I really liked the music. I think the movie would have been much better if they had just done voice-overs for the songs. Then we would only have needed to overlook the amateur dancing.

The plot is a modified RomCom plot, but since this isn't a spoiler review, you will have to see it to find out how it deviates from the standard line.

I saw this movie with my daughter who is an aficionado of movie musicals. She was annoyed at the rampant borrowing from classics such as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", "An American in Paris", and "Singing in the Rain". Although this point is worth mentioning, I think many if not most viewers will not notice.

We just watched "Singing in the Rain" last night, in honor of Debbie Reynolds. If you want to see what a great musical actually looks and sounds like, you can rent it from Amazon. Then make your own comparison.