Plot: In Hollywood, Mia and Sebastian are struggling to make it in their respective respective careers, about which each has extreme passion. Mia is an actress who dropped out of college and moved from small-town Nevada five years ago to pursue her dream. She is enamored with old-tome Hollywood - the movies she grew up on - but hates the cattle-herding feeling of going on auditions and her belief that she needs to schmooze at social events to get ahead in the business. Sebastian is a jazz pianist, his style of jazz in the vein of traditionalists Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. He wants to do his part to preserve that tradition, especially as he knows that that style of music is dying. He has trouble emotionally playing music he doesn't like just to get a paying gig. He dreams of opening his own jazz club, most specifically in what used to be a famous jazz club that has since been converted to a tapas-bar-cum-salsa-dance-club. Partly because of their individual struggles and partly because of the situations, their first few chance meetings are antagonistic. But they eventually become attracted to each other largely because of the passion for their dreams that they see in each other. But there are many obstacles to a happily-ever-after. They may be able to endure the struggling-artist life for so long before those struggles take their toll. The pursuit of their individual dreams may take all their energies with nothing left for their relationship. And any compromise each may make in getting ahead may change the person with whom each has fallen in love.
Alternative Plot: Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
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