Review: Even a great Adam Driver and cool Sparks tunes can't save the very weird 'Annette'

Adam Driver raging, singing Sparks songs and owning the screen is the highlight of “Annette,” though everything else is just way too strange to come together.

Directed by French director Leos Carax (“Holy Motors”), the musical is impressively ambitious with its wild tale of an imploding LA celebrity couple and their preternaturally talented daughter. (Imagine “A Star Is Born” but with singing during sex and puppet kids.) "Annette" (★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters and streaming now on Amazon Prime) attempts to be an avant-garde rock opera, a farce about modern star culture and a tragic family drama all in one bizarre, head-scratching concoction, and not even a revved-up Driver or songs by the cult art-pop group Sparks can lift the film to its lofty aims.

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Musical siblings Ron and Russell Mael, the subjects of Edgar Wright’s wondrous new documentary “The Sparks Brothers," originally hatched the idea for "Annette" and at least get some more screen time this summer. They join Driver, co-stars Marion Cotillard and Simon Helberg, kids in robes, women in nightgowns and even Carax himself to walk down the street singing the film’s opening number of “So May We Start.” It both welcomes the audience to the film's quirky vibe and also proclaims that this ain’t “Les Misérables.”

From there we’re introduced to the film’s particulars: Henry McHenry (Driver) is the bad boy of standup comedy – think Andy Kaufman crossed with Eminem – and Ann Defrasnoux (Cotillard) is a famous opera singer. They meet, have a whirlwind romance, get married and have a daughter, Annette (played by puppets from birth to age 6), who even at an impossibly young age boasts her mom’s singing voice. The other part of the complicated equation is the Conductor (Helberg), Ann’s longtime accompanist who’s loved her from afar and regrets never telling her now that this toxic lover is in her life.

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Ann’s on the rise, the increasingly unhinged Henry’s career is on a downward trajectory, and their volatile relationship worsens as Henry tries to keep the family out of the public eye. It all leads to a stormy, tragic night at sea that changes all their lives, even Annette’s, and Henry’s dangerous nature manifests itself fully as he struggles to play family man.

Driver’s fearsome and superb in a wide-ranging role, from Henry boisterously heckling his own fans to lovingly holding his young child. He’s just as good as he was in his Oscar-nominated “Marriage Story” role charting that downward spiral of anger and resentment, though with a heavy dose of macho bravado here. As a character, Ann never quite matches up to Henry, though Cotillard does what she can and there are certain moments where she’s downright haunting. One other intriguing dynamic is between the imposing Henry and the diminutive Conductor, and Helberg (best known for “The Big Bang Theory”) is a game foil for Driver.

Amid the over-the-top melodrama, Carax crafts some amazing scenes and, later in the film, moving flourishes. There is a darkness that pervades, however, that doesn’t quite jibe with Sparks’ exuberant music. For the uninitiated, the band is also a bit of an acquired taste: The Maels are known for their minimalistic and lyrical repetition, so don’t go in expecting show tunes a la Bernstein and Sondheim.

“Annette” is truly strange even for those who dig the truly strange, and filled with odd choices, one of them being the puppet child. Even if you've surrendered yourself to Carax's surreal fantasy landscape, a marionette kid jolts you right out, though one scene in particular with Annette and Henry is gut-punchingly real. The film boasts many great disparate pieces, though disappointingly never finds harmony among them.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Annette' review: Despite great Adam Driver, Sparks musical fizzles