Written by Bradley Cooper And Josh Singer
Directed by Bradley Cooper
Leonard: "You made an exception for me!"
Felicia: "I thought maybe you were worth making an exception for."
It wasn't so long that the discourse surrounding this movie and it's leading man/co-writer/director's bid for an Oscar became a bit all consuming. There are award contenders that often rub folk up the wrong way. This movie certainly inspired a fair amount of ire. Was it justified ire?
I hate to admit it but maybe it was a little justifed. I mean it's taken me a year since it's release on Netflix to actually watch this one and even then, it felt random. I wanted to give this movie the benefit of the doubt because on paper, it should've been an easy win for Bradley Cooper but in all honesty, I somewhat struggled with this one a lot.
In this two hour plus biopic, Bradley Cooper took on the role of composer Leonard Bernstein. The movie mostly focused on Bernstein's romance, marriage and eventual seperation from his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). It's something of a happy union, in spite of Felicia's awareness of her husband's relationships with men.
Yes, the movie itself didn't totally shy from the fact that Bernstein was a man who had relationships with other men. The most notable one being his romance with clarinetist David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer). However that's not a relationship that lasted long when Leonard decided to make an honest woman out of Felicia and raise a family.
As the film bounced between black and white for the early years of Bernstein's life and career, the switch to colour then jarred a bit. It did however seemed to go with Bernstein having to accept the end of his marriage and a more honest relationship with his children, specifically eldest daughter, Jamie (Maya Hawke).
There's some decent focus given to Felicia's illness and death while the beginning and end of this movie centred on Bernstein himself working in London with a symphony orchestra. When Cooper dialled himself down in certain scenes, he's effective as Bernstein but he's hammy at times and often during the wrong time that I'm surprised he was in consideration for awards with this one.
- Other noteworthy (though not always positive) performances included Michael Urie, Sarah Silverman and Zachary Booth as Jerry Robbins, Shirley Bernstein and Mendy Wager.
- The movie had a limited theatrical run before getting a Netflix release a month later.
- Standout music: The compositions used in the movie included On The Waterfront, Facsimile: Molto adagio, Fancy Free and Mass to name a few.
- Chronology: The movie spans from 1943 New York to 1973 London and back to 1987 for Bernstein's life after Felicia.
On paper, I genuinely should've loved Maestro because there's certainly moments that pull me in. Saying that as a movie, both Cooper and Mulligan's performances are a bit too theatrical to the point where it derailed a lot of what both were trying to do and that brought the movie down for me.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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