Catch rising ‘Star’

“transforms” her into an embarrassing cross between Madonna and Beyonce.

Jack objects to the transformation, telling Ally she has betrayed her talent. The trouble is he is right, and the film never admits this. Jackson is some kind of fading superstar cross between a Willie Nelson (Nelson's son Lukas Nelson wrote several of the film's songs) and Blake Shelton.

Cooper, whose voice is naturally high-pitched, has major movie-star hair and wears heavy-duty bronzer. He adopts the deep bass growl of his co-star Sam Elliott, who plays Jack's older brother and tour manager Bobby, and is very good delivering some not very good dialogue. Dave Chappelle shows up and made me go, “Chappelle?” Gaga pulls off the acting for sure. When Ally walks out on the stage to perform for the first time with Jack, “A Star Is Born” is thrilling like no film has been thrilling in a long time.

But the film, co-written by Cooper, Eric Roth (“Extremely Close & Incredibly Loud”) and Nicholas Sparks adapter Will Fetters, almost falls apart in the second hour. Jack's demons, involving, of course, his dead pecan farmer father, do not seem very demonic. Ally's complaints about music industry men telling her her nose is too big and she's not pretty enough sound like they were written for Gaga, if not her predecessor, Streisand, and they will strike a chord. But Jack's big breakdown scene and the film's weepie, final send-off complete with a string section made me want this “Star” to end already.