A Star Is Born

Bradley Cooper directs A Star Is Born with enough belief in its romance to make the familiar story work again. We recommend it for the two leads and the music, with a reservation about how quickly the second half moves through Ally Campana’s life. Lady Gaga makes the undiscovered singer believable without shrinking the talent that will get her noticed. The film needs us to accept that someone can sing like this and still need encouragement, and she makes that seem reasonable.

As Jackson Maine, Bradley Cooper makes the fading rock singer attractive company without softening his alcohol problem. His attraction to Ally matters because he hears something in her music, and their early exchanges have the ease of people enjoying each other’s company. Lady Gaga lets Ally enjoy his attention without seeming grateful for every scrap of it. We believe she likes this man, and that helps even when liking him becomes difficult.

Matthew Libatique’s cinematography brings the concert performances close enough for us to watch the singers working. We were moved by “Shallow”: Lady Gaga gives the song the force of someone finally getting a hearing. Bradley Cooper is convincing beside her, attentive to the person sharing the song. The sequence makes musical collaboration feel intimate, and gives the romance a credibility that declarations of love alone would struggle to supply.

Karen Murphy’s production design makes the professional music world feel like somewhere people work, which is useful in a story so liable to admire celebrity. The concert settings support the performances without competing with them, and that restraint lets the faces retain our attention. Jay Cassidy’s editing gives the early courtship time to establish the couple’s pleasure in being together. When their careers begin to demand more space, however, the film seems less sure about how long to spend on the moments between the songs.

The screenplay by Eric Roth, Will Fetters and Bradley Cooper is less satisfying when it turns to Ally’s professional progress. Her rise happens too quickly for some of the choices to feel entirely hers, and the music business becomes a convenient way of pushing the couple towards trouble. At 136 minutes, the film begins to feel long in these stretches. The story advances, but we learn too little about what she makes of it. We wanted more time with her decisions, particularly because Lady Gaga has made her seem capable of arguing for them.

This belongs to the sort of musical melodrama that asks the songs to do as much work as the dialogue, and it is right to trust these performers. Bradley Cooper takes Jackson’s drinking seriously enough that his talent never becomes an adequate excuse for his behaviour. Sam Elliott, playing Bobby Maine, gives the supporting scenes feeling without asking for our attention quite so loudly. The script may hurry, but the actors rarely seem to be anticipating the next crisis. If a musical romance is what the evening needs, these two deserve the time, even when the script starts hurrying them along.