Retro Review: Funny Face

I don't like musicals.

There. I said it.

I don't like them because, usually, their stories are nothing more than an excuse to get to the next song and dance number. And that's fine if you're into that sort of thing. It's not for me. Usually. And while Funny Face is another notch on my musicals-I-don't-care-for-stick, it did change some things up.

Funny Face tells the story of a young, intellectual woman (the ever-raveshing Audrey Hepburn) who is whisked away into the world of fashion and modeling. Of course, they go to Paris. And Fred Astaire too, and he dances. The musical numbers are decent, but only one or two memorable songs. Besides Audrey, the acting is sub par. However, unlike most musicals where the story is a slave to pushing the musical numbers forward, I found this story actually interesting! It dealt with society, and expectations, and art vs. intellect, and it almost had something to say. But then those pesky musical numbers kept popping up and it was like they were getting in the way. This movie came so close to captivating me, but every time it almost got there, people would break into another song and dance and kill the momentum.

This leads me to beg the question: why did this movie have to be a musical? I mean, seriously! Imagine if Fred and Audrey had to actually deal with their differences instead of just dancing around to make it better. There could have been actual character depth had the characters been given enough time to actually grow before randomly breaking into song. Funny Face came so close to doing something interesting, but its music, the very nature of its genre, held it back. And its music wasn't even that good.

I guess the flip side is, would it's musical numbers have been any better if it didn't have such a worthy story?