Love & Mercy is the rare kind of biopic that doesn’t seek to give a full portrait of its subject. Director Bill Pohland and writers Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner bring the most interesting periods in Brian Wilson’s life to the big screen, even if the events are separated by decades.
Rather than trying to sum up the life of the Beach Boys’ creative genius into a two-hour movie, Pohland focused on the making of Pet Sounds in the mid 1960s and Wilson’s troubled relationship with Eugene Landy during the 1980s. Pohland decided not to have one actor play Wilson under heavy makeup to make him look older or younger. Instead, he went with the genius move of casting two different actors.
Paul Dano, who has continued to show an incredible versatility and wise decision-making skills when it comes to picking projects, plays a younger Wilson perfectly. Not only does he look just like Wilson did in his younger days, but he captures that almost scatterbrained musical genius growing before our eyes.
For the older Wilson, Pohland cast John Cusack, who admittedly doesn’t look much like Wilson. But it doesn’t matter. Cusack gives one of his best performances in years, portraying Wilson as a broken man at this point. In the 1980s, Wilson was under Landy’s watch 24/7, until Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) came into his life. The two fell in love at a car dealership where she was working, even before she knew who he was. Landy (Paul Giamatti) tried to keep them apart, but she stood firm and found a way to wrestle Wilson from his grasp.
As both Wilson and Melinda are still alive, one has to wonder if the film is sugar-coated in any way. Thankfully, Wilson didn’t stop Pohland from showing the lowest points of his life. This is nothing like The Theory of Everything’s rose-colored glasses look at Stephen Hawking’s life.
Pohland is also more interested in the man than his music, which helps the film a great deal. Even as he shows Wilson putting together Pet Sounds, never once does the tone shift to suddenly idolize the music he is making. We don’t lose sight of Pohland’s idea that Wilson’s struggles intensified during this time, thanks to conflicts with his father, Murry (Bill Camp) and Mike Love (Jake Abel, in a standout supporting part).
While the film undoubtedly belongs to the two men playing Wilson, one can’t lose sight of how surprisingly good Elizabeth Banks is as Melinda. Freed from constrictions of trying to be funny, she is a strong presence in the film and fits perfectly in the role. She’s able to play both a mother figure for Wilson and a romantic interest at the same time.
The Beach Boys remain one of the great bands in American music history and this touching look at Wilson’s life finally does the story justice. It stays far from the cliche, music biopic story about a band’s meteoric rise. Instead, we are given an intimate portrait of a man, one who just happens to be the creator of music masterpieces like Pet Sounds and SMiLE. While the title song (released on Wilson’s first solo album) isn’t heard until the credits, it’s the perfect tune to keep in mind while seeing Love & Mercy. Pohland - and Wilson, just by allowing this masterpiece to exist - wants us to feel the love he finally got and the journey that took him there.
image courtesy of Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate
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