‘Pitch Perfect’ as a film would live or die on the use of music and compositions used throughout the film and it is safe to say that not only does the music work perfectly with the film, it adds to the up-beat high-tempo feeling that surrounds the film from beginning to end.
The performances are fantastic from everyone with not a single dud, acting wise anyway, character wise, well let’s just say that some characters were put there purely for comedic effect and sometimes, it fell short, ridiculously short. In particular the character Lily, played by Hana Mae Lee, whose gag is that, she talks really quietly, ironically falls on deaf ears as it just felt like the film was trying too hard to be funny with that character.
Now on the polar opposite of that, Rebel Wilson’s character Fat Amy, while the name suggests that the only gags she would be involved in would be about her weight, is entirely not true, and while there are some fat jokes, most of the stuff Wilson is given is gold and delivered, excuse the pun, pitch perfect.
Anna Kendrick though, carried the film and while not an award-calibre performance, it was more than enjoyable in that we never grow tired of her and end up caring about her story, no matter how contrived and generic it was.
You see, that is far and away the biggest weakness of the film, it is ridiculously generic and predictable and it owes a lot to what is a similar film, although executed far better, ‘School of Rock’. throughout the film it just became more abundantly clear that this film was very derivative of ‘School of Rock’ with the overall story elements being almost punch-for-punch the same.
The look of the film is also very generic and feels like every other modern “Hollywood Comedy”, just overly written, overly shot and overly polished. The over-polished look definitely affected my enjoyment of the film slightly but maybe it is because I adore a more realistic aesthetic in my films.
In spite of all of the above though, ‘Pitch Perfect’ never ceases to be just a simply fun film to watch, it isn’t the funniest, nor the wittiest nor great, but it is a solidly fun film and to have a film go to credits and realise how much fun you just had watching a film, is something special in and of itself and shouldn’t be belittled because sometimes, fun is all you need.
7/10
