Musical bio-pics are a difficult genre. It’s easy to make an enjoyable film but extremely hard to make a great piece of cinema. Clint Eastwood managed it with Bird and I struggle to think of any more recent exemplars.
Then along comes Bill Pohlad.
Eschewing the standard chronological tedium, Pohlad has taken two seminal points in the life of Brian Wilson: the development and recording of Pet Sounds in the 60s, and his meeting with Melinda Ledbetter who was to become his second wife in the late 80s. These two times are intercut beautifully and with complete, editorial logic. Praise goes not just to Pohlad, but to his editor Dino Jonsater.
The making of Pet Sounds is given due respect with scenes of great musical detail, shot like a documentary. Paul Dano, as 60s Brian, is outstanding, sharply detailed in characterisation, intense, human and beautifully underplayed. It is, perhaps, no surprise to learn that Pet Sounds was an initial, commercial, failure but a critical success. How often is this the story of the watershed albums in music?
80s Wilson is played by John Cusack, in what must be an Oscar-attracting performance. He manages to portray a man mentally ill, over-medicated, over-controlled and confused, without turning him into a psychological version of the Elephant Man. He also shows us exactly why Melinda fell in love with him. Melinda is played superbly by Elizabeth Banks. It would have been easy to turn her into a sop, but Banks gives her the backbone which she must have had to push through the mess around Wilson. The chemistry between Banks and Cusack is a joy to watch.
The mess around Wilson was mostly caused by charlatan doctor Eugene Landy, played with his inevitable brilliance by Paul Giamatti.
Striking in this film is the care with which supporting roles have been cast. Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee should get an Academy Award for Casting if there were such a thing! The rest of The Beach Boys, the session musicians, the hangers-on… all gave a richness to every scene they were in. And special mention to Bill Camp in the difficult role of Murry Wilson, the brothers’ brutally cruel father.
With a tight, pacey screenplay by Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner, and, of course, the great music of Brian Wilson, this is film is a winner.
God only knows where you’ll be if you don’t see it…
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Twitter: @TraceyKorsten
Rating out of 10: 8
Love & Mercy opens around Australia on 25 June 2015.
More News
