The setup of Better Man is typical. Like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, this biopic from The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey wades via the early hardships, romantic discord, and numerous controversies of a British pop star – on this case, Robbie Williams. Yet it’s additionally a jukebox musical with a lot exuberant punch, ache, and ingenuity that it feels fairly not like any you may need seen earlier than – thanks largely to rendering its “Angels”-singing topic as a CGI chimpanzee in a world in any other case occupied by live-action homo sapiens. You would possibly assume, as I did, “Why the gimmick?” As Williams factors out in an affable voiceover, the previous teen idol unhealthy boy has lengthy regarded himself as a “much less advanced” being. He even penned a music known as “Me and My Monkey” to explain his coke-addled stage persona; the movie spends a substantial period of time acquainting us with this aspect of Williams throughout his rise to fame, first within the Nineteen Nineties with boy band Take That and later within the ’00s as a solo artist.
The incontrovertible fact that we’re seeing this digital chimp snort his means via dwell reveals and band break-up conferences, reasonably than a human actor, definitely makes the bleaker parts of Better Man a better tablet to swallow. Yet there’s nothing primitive in regards to the feelings Jonno Davies and Asmara Feik are capable of convey via the beautiful efficiency seize know-how of the Wētā FX workforce (of Lord of the Rings fame). With Williams lending his singing vocals too, the result’s a flawless characterization of a working-class boy completed good, unhealthy, ugly, and good once more – full with immaculate North-of-England accent work and vulgarity-filled humor, as well.
That god-tier degree of seamlessness is mirrored in all places within the movie, particularly within the evocative musical numbers. Williams’ ballad “Feel” is about towards the kitchen-sink backdrop of Stoke-on-Trent circa 1982, the place younger Robert (performed by Feik and voiced by Carter J. Murphy) superbly croons “I simply wish to really feel actual love” as he watches his flaky dad Peter (stunningly portrayed by Steve Pemberton) ditch the household for a lifetime of cabaret. The quantity transitions right into a revolving two-shot of a father-son duet Robert heartbreakingly imagines utilizing the comb and velvet jacket Peter leaves behind.
This abandonment serves because the catalyst for Robbie’s self-destruction, self-loathing, and determined have to be well-known, a core wound mended and damaged via breathtaking musical sequences depicting his risky break up from Take That (“Come Undone”) and bittersweet romance with All Saints star Nicole Appleton (“She’s The One”). It culminates in a roaring rendition of “Let Me Entertain You” as Williams’ well-known three-night stand on the 2003 Knebworth Festival turns into a hauntingly violent skirmish between the singer and 1000’s of his previous selves. The digicam zooms maniacally throughout the red-tinged battlefield as ash rains down and longswords, axes, and daggers conflict.
No scene, nonetheless, delivers on the movie’s promise “to provide you a right-f**king entertaining” like when London’s Regent Street turns into the stage for a mind-blowing, “Rock DJ”-soundtracked tour via the musical historical past of Take That. The synchronization of so many deep-cut aesthetic selections – from the rain-soaked “Back for Good” video to the matching blue teddy-boy suits they wore to the 1994 Brit Awards – with dynamic choreography and supremely polished modifying, guarantee this sequence sings in excellent concord.
These musical numbers push the story ahead in rip-roaring vogue, but the script is as a lot rooted in Williams’ familial ties and Peter popping out and in of his son’s life. As Robert’s grandmother, Alison Steadman breathes attractive mild and pathos into her hometown scenes with Davies. Pemberton is perhaps finest recognized for the darkish comedy collection The League of Gentleman, however the dramatic verve he imbues Peter with proves poignant and devastating all through Better Man – particularly throughout a quietly stirring closing act on the Royal Albert Hall.
With Better Man, Gracey has remodeled Williams’ life, music, and demons right into a thunderous cinematic spectacle. But its final success is right down to its delicate means to stay grounded within the emotional actuality of a person striving to seek out love for the little lad who used to observe Frank Sinatra and The Two Ronnies together with his nan on the telly. That it does so whereas that man and lad are each portrayed by an ape made from 1s and 0s is all of the extra unimaginable.
