Director: Bill Pohlad Starring: John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti Writers: Oren Moverman, Michael A. Lerner | 4.5/5 Love & Mercy After watching Bill Pohlad’s devastatingly beautiful portrait of The Beach Boy’s mastermind Brian Wilson, my brain kept coming back to one of my favorite books of all time: Bob Dylan’s autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. Dylan tells his story in the style of a memoir, with detailed snapshots from three years in his life. Todd Haynes’ Dylan pseudo-biofilm, I’m Not There, takes a similar approach, as does Pohlad with Love & Mercy. It’d be easy to make a sunny, Mike Love-approved Brian Wilson film that follows him from birth to the present, but there is no way that film would have effectively conveyed the complexities of one of music’s greatest minds. By narrowing his focus to two of the most central moments in Wilson’s life, Pohlad has succeeded in making what will surely be the definitive Brian Wilson film. Love & Mercy gives us Brian, played by Paul Dano and John Cusack in a pair of performances that are nothing short of masterful, at his highest peak and lowest valley. That highest peak would the ’65/‘66 recording of his band’s landmark Pet Sounds album, which is now widely regarded as one of the best albums ever recorded. Written, produced, arranged, and mostly sung by Wilson while his band was off touring Japan, the sheer invention Pet Sounds both put a riff in the fun-in-the-sun image of the Beach Boys and contributed to Wilson’s increasing mental instability. Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) plays the younger Wilson with all of the intensity that he brings to every role. It takes a great actor to convincingly portray all of emotions that come along with personal insecurities, abusive father troubles, brotherly quarrels, and sheer creative alchemy. With such a distinctive, storied, and studied personality, it would be easy to fall into mere imitation. Dano, never one for the easy way out, manages to embody the singer with respect and honesty. |
The other half of Love & Mercy’s story follows Wilson’s mid-80’s personal (and literal) imprisonment by Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti, killer). Landy initially made his way into Wilson’s life as his therapist, but gradually took full charge of his life, regulating his diet, pumping him full of unnecessary medication, misdiagnosing him with paranoid schizophrenia, and, worst of all, binding himself to Wilson as his legal guardian. I mean, there is some serious Misery stuff going on here. This is also the part of the story where Wilson meets Melinda Ledbetter, a major figure in his life that any true Brian Wilson fan pretty much loves. Watch Love & Mercy and join the club. Played by the glorious Elizabeth Banks, Melinda is a Cadillac salesman who helps Brian see Landy for the parasite he is.
This brings me to the greatest pleasure to be found in the film: the dynamite chemistry from Cusack and Banks, two stars killing it in career-best performances. If you are a fan of any of Cusack’s awkward, hopeless romantics of the 80’s, this is the film for you. Along with those awkward moments of new love, Cusack throws in a heavy helping of pain, confusion, and hurt. His glossy eyes are weighed down by prescription drugs and memories and you simply cannot resist getting lost in them. Banks is as luminous and strong as Cusack is melancholy. The actress in on a role lately, just coming off the huge wave of Pitch Perfect 2, a film which starred AND DIRECTED. What can’t this woman do?
The same goes for Pohlad, who, as a producer, has been helping bring to life films like Brokeback Mountain, The Tree of Life, and 12 Years a Slave. If this is what Pohlad’s second film as a director - his first was a little-seen film from 1990 - looks like, there is no telling what he else can do. I guess all we can do is sit and anticipate fervently. If you need me, that’s what I will be doing.
This brings me to the greatest pleasure to be found in the film: the dynamite chemistry from Cusack and Banks, two stars killing it in career-best performances. If you are a fan of any of Cusack’s awkward, hopeless romantics of the 80’s, this is the film for you. Along with those awkward moments of new love, Cusack throws in a heavy helping of pain, confusion, and hurt. His glossy eyes are weighed down by prescription drugs and memories and you simply cannot resist getting lost in them. Banks is as luminous and strong as Cusack is melancholy. The actress in on a role lately, just coming off the huge wave of Pitch Perfect 2, a film which starred AND DIRECTED. What can’t this woman do?
The same goes for Pohlad, who, as a producer, has been helping bring to life films like Brokeback Mountain, The Tree of Life, and 12 Years a Slave. If this is what Pohlad’s second film as a director - his first was a little-seen film from 1990 - looks like, there is no telling what he else can do. I guess all we can do is sit and anticipate fervently. If you need me, that’s what I will be doing.