Let's not beat around the bush here. I hated this film. With a passion.

It has received such acclaim that I actually watched it a couple of years later to see if I'd been having an off day when I formed my opinion the first time around. Nope. Still hated it.

I'm so utterly baffled by my response to it. I feel as though I must perhaps be watching a different film as my view on it varies so greatly from the view of all my friends on it who all loved it and think the songs are great.

I wanted to like it, I really did and there are elements of it that I do like.

I adored the costume and sets.

The story is OK and Hugh Jackman is really good in it.

Performance wise he does a great job, but I hated the songs with a passion and as it's pretty much all songs, it totally ruined it for me.

If you're the kind of person who likes TV talent shows and generic pop music then you'll probably like this music too, but the music left me cold.

There is one song in the entire film that didn't make me want to reach for the ear plugs (the song and dance routine in the bar which I could tolerate) and visually it is very lovely, but for me, the songs were just utterly awful - to the point that I couldn't help myself from groaning every time a new song started!

Perhaps if my daughter was still young and I'd shared the watch with her and seen her get swept away with it (it's a grand production that's for certain) then I might have liked it more, but as an adult who hates pop music, I could find a few redeeming features, but not enough for me to regard it as a good or enjoyable film by any stretch.