Film Review: Rock of Ages

Musicals are very complicated, walking thin lines between mesmerizing pieces of art and excruciatingly mindless trash. Anyone who can craft a decent musical must be commended, having to work in the song and dance routine and make it seem meaningful at the same time. It's difficult for characters to get flushed out when they rely on songs to express their emotions. You have to know when the spoken word is stronger than the sung one too, or when silence can say it all.

Enter Rock of Ages, a film that isn't quite comfortable without a song.

The film centers on a popular nightclub located on the famous Sunset Strip in the late eighties, when rock and roll ruled, an outfit made entirely of leather brought praise rather than ridicule, and rock-stars were the kings and queens. The ensemble cast is rounded out with the well-known (Cruise, Zeta-Jones, Baldwin), and led by newcomers Julianne Hough (Footloose, 2011) and Diego Boneta (Pretty Little Liars). Cruise immediately steals every scene he is in, capturing just what it was to be a rocker in the eighties, complete with outrageous purchases such as Heyman, his monkey assistant. He is the major focus of the film and receives the most development, changing from waking up in his fancy bedroom with a handful of women to earning a love-interest that carries his child by the end credits.

The actors all do their jobs well, aside from (as unbelievable as it sounds) Bryan Cranston. Yes, he is an amazing actor and deserves all the awards and recognition that Breaking Bad has brought him. But as much as it pains me to say, this was not his brightest decision. He feels underused and underdeveloped, and believe me in this film that is quite an accomplishment.

On that note I bring up Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) and Russel Brand (Get Him to The Greek), two great actors that portray the club owner and his right-hand man respectively. These are two of my favorite actors, and knowing that this was an ensemble cast I knew not to expect many scenes focusing solely on the two. Unfortunately I was wrong. If it was handled better this would have been a good thing, but sadly it wasn't. The characters start the film as friends, sitting down and conversing over beer and the matter, but halfway through the film a love ballad reveals them to be in love with each other, assisted through flashbacks to . . . well, before the film. Now my sole problem is that this feels forced, written in so that they could add another song to the soundtrack and make sure the money they paid these two didn't go to waste. If the film had hinted that they were gay prior to this scene then it wouldn't annoy me as much, but it's not.

The two leads are alright for the little experience they have, though the chemistry comes off as being a little cardboard at first they seem to mesh better by the end. Sherrie is a small town girl living in a lonely world (you know the song) that rides into Hollywood with hopes and dreams of becoming a famous singer. Before you can say "ridiculously forced love-interest" she meets Drew, a man that gets her a job at the nightclub he works in. Now I'm somewhat of an optimist, but to arrive in Hollywood and earn a job at a place that is perfect for up-and-coming singers in less than a day is a pretty hard pill to swallow. Still, this isn't a heartbreaking tale about keeping perseverance when your hopes and dreams don't come true, it's a musical with a monkey. Like every couple they break up over a misunderstanding rather than sit down and talk about what they believe happened because that's what any sane person would do. Either way you're just humming along with the music until the obvious moment when they get back together.

The music is amazing, and for a majority of the songs you'll find that you know most (if not all) of the lyrics. Alec Baldwin, whose distinct voice never changes, somehow managed to sound amazing to me despite his talk-singing. But while the music is definitely the film's greatest strength, it's also its major flaw. At very few points in the film did it calm down to breathe or let things sink in. From one song we are given a brief explanation of why we're moving into another one; repeat for two hours and you have the film. I love rock and roll (fighting urge to sing), but that doesn't mean I'm willing to sacrifice my need for a plot or major character development for it.

Across the Universe is one of my favorite films, and despite a rushed opening it managed to slow down and deliver great characters. It was ten minutes longer but it managed to achieve so much, perhaps an extra ten minutes could have helped this film.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Pros: the acting, the music, the sets that manage to capture the time period, the monkey that isn't too ridiculous.

Cons: too few moments of plot or character development, Brand and Baldwin's subplot comes from out of nowhere and relies on scenes not shown to fuel it, no quiet moments to reflect on all that happens.