LOVE & MERCY
Starring: John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti
Directed by: Bill Pohlad
Written by: Oren Moverman and Michael A. Lerner
Based on the Life of Brian Wilson
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 2hrs 1min
NOMINEE – Golden Globe – (Paul Dano)
NOMINEE – Golden Globe – Best Original Song (One Kind of Love)
NOMINEE – Critics’ Choice Award – (Paul Dano)
NOMINEE – Critics’ Choice – Best Song (One Kind of Love)
“…when I met Brian… …we talked and he said you can tell the truth. Tell everything. Whatever happened, you can tell it, as long as it was true. “ – Actor- John Cusack – SXSW 2015
Back in June of 2015, when the film LOVE & MERCY was first released, it was met with considerable critical praise and as I post this article, it still holds an impressive 89% fresh rating on the popular Rotten Tomatoes website. Combining four award-worthy performances by John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Dano and Paul Giamatti with a first-rate script, it’s the perfect example of what I like to call an Underexposed Cinematic Treasure – a buried gem that really deserves to be discovered and appreciated by more people. Why this movie wasn’t a bigger hit is beyond me. I thought about it for a while and can only come up with one conclusion (of course, it’s only speculation on my part). Perhaps this wasn’t the film that people, especially The Beach Boys’ fans, were looking for. At first glance, many might have expected a biography showcasing the rise of one of the greatest bands of all time. In reality, though, it isn’t actually about The Beach Boys at all. Instead, it’s strictly a movie about two particular periods in The Beach Boys co-creator Brian Wilson’s life. The rest of the band are merely treated as supporting characters in his personal story. Fortunately, grounding the script in this manner strengthens the film and allows for a more personal exploration of the story’s themes, while leaving all of the surface-level material on the sidelines. The movie itself becomes a character-driven portrait of a fractured soul’s journey toward salvation.
I’ll put it right out there – It’s a very rare occasion for me to come across a movie that I fall in love with almost immediately. It usually takes a little time for me to get settled into the story, letting its magic take over my senses. That being said, every once in a long while, a film comes along where my feelings become evident right away (PADDINGTON and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK are two other examples). This film’s opening credit sequence consists of a montage of The Beach Boys’ music – songs like SURFIN’ USA and I GET AROUND – accompanied by footage of the band in the studio creating their music, performing on stage and posing for photoshoots. It’s at about the six-minute mark that we are presented with the film’s first real scene. It introduces the viewer to two of the movie’s central characters, Brian Wilson (the older version) and Melinda Ledbetter. Brian is at an automobile dealership looking to buy a car and Melinda is the saleswoman. These two characters are perfectly set up: Brian’s quirkiness as he talks about inappropriate things, such as the death of his brother and Melinda’s sympathetic ear as she, confused by it all, lets him say what he needs to say. It’s incredibly fascinating to watch them interact, thanks to the extremely honest performances given by both John Cusack and Elizabeth Banks. The chemistry between them feels so genuine that it immediately drew me into their story and made me want to see where these two characters’ lives were headed. Add to this the imposing Dr. Landry and his fun portrayal by Paul Giamatti and I was all in.
The film’s plot revolves around two very different narratives. The first takes place during the sixties, shortly after the Beach Boys’ initial rise to fame. The band’s principal songwriter, Brian Wilson, decides it’s time to try something different with their music. Discussing the new Beatles album, “Rubber Soul,” with the rest of the band, he emphasizes that he wants to push their music further. He tells them, “I got all kinds of new ideas, new sounds, new harmonies, new instruments…” while later in the film stressing, “I got different stuff inside me. I gotta get it out.” He’s uninterested in the commercial aspects of the business or performing on stage. He only cares about making the music. As the rest of the band tours Japan, he stays behind and begins work on the songs that will make up their new album, PET SOUNDS. Unfortunately, when they return, not everyone is on board with this new musical direction.
Juxtaposed with this is a narrative about the period in Brian’s life that took place during the 80s when, as an older, more emotionally fragile man, he lives under the control of the oppressive therapist Dr. Eugene Landy, a man who has taken control over his entire life, forcing him into isolation, away from his friends and family. It’s during this tumultuous time that he meets Melinda, a woman who falls in love with him and feels compelled to figure out how to help him escape the hellish life he leads.
As a filmmaker, director Bill Pohlad does an impressive job recreating the look and feel of the two time periods. However, it’s the creation of the behind-the-scenes moments, where a younger Brian, played by Paul Dano, collaborates with the session players known as “The Wrecking Crew” to create the new music, that’s really impressive. The handling of the handheld visuals shot with 16mm cameras and natural, improvisational-sounding dialogue has a documentary style that makes everything feel incredibly authentic, while bringing the viewer into some of the most engaging behind-the-scenes moments that any music biography has ever given us.
The film’s script, written by Oren Moverman and Michael A. Lerner, takes an interesting approach to the biographical narrative. It’s written in a nonlinear fashion, blending the two very different time periods in a way that allows the viewer to experience them both simultaneously. When casting the part of Brian, Pohlad avoided the usual route of relying on one actor and a lot of makeup to show the age difference. Instead, he deliberately decided to cast two different actors—Dano and Cusack—to portray Brian during these two important stages in his life. On paper, this sounds like an approach that could have really ended in disaster, especially since both actors look very different and treat the character in their own unique way. Yet, Pohlad seems to have been able to recognize how it would all work, similarly to how Brian viewed the creative structures of his own music. In one scene, while Brian is working on the instrumental arrangement for the song “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” one of the musicians points out to him that… “…you got Lyle playing in D and the rest of us playing in A major. How does that work? Two bass lines in two different keys?” Brian replies with “It works in my head.” This approach of using two actors must have just worked in Pohlad’s head, and guess what, it works in the film as well. The contrast between Dano and Cusack’s interpretations of Brian being so different artistically, combined with how the two time periods are intercut, actually makes for a richer overall exploration of who this man is internally throughout the film.
In the movie’s very first shot, we meet the younger version of Brian, who is sitting in a sound booth. He appears to be talking to someone about the voices in his head that help him write the music. It’s never made clear… maybe he’s talking to himself. The first words we hear are, “Sometimes it scares me to think where it’s coming from, you know? Like… There’s someone else inside there, not me. Well… What if I… What if I… What if I lose it and never get it back? What would I do then?” Dano plays Brian at a point in his career when he is burning out on the touring life and feels the need to get this amazing music that is speaking to him produced. As an actor, he reaches deep into the soul of the character, helping to create a genuine truth about who this man is at his core. His performance is one filled with real emotion as he sympathetically recreates the persistence of the artist as well as the mental anguish and breakdown of the man who is constantly being torn down by his father, while his cousin/bandmate, Mike Love, stresses that he doesn’t like or understand the new music. At one point, Mike asks if one of the songs is a drug song, then claims “There’s not one hit on this album” and eventually accuses Brian of letting the band down. Of course, the initial failure of the “Pet Sounds” album doesn’t help his mental state any.
Cusack does a great job presenting the broken side of Brian’s personality. He plays him as a man who is a little older and has obviously endured even more mental strain. He has been broken down even more by the years of abuse that he’s suffered at the hands of Dr. Landy, a man who insists on controlling every aspect of his life and keeping that control by way of misdiagnosis. On the flip side, Cusack also does an amazing job conveying a genuine innocence within Brian’s soul, which will attract the viewer to him as a person, much in the same way that it does Melinda. Cusack doesn’t overplay the part in a way that emphasizes Brian’s mental illness in the search for awards at year’s end. He does his best to embody the character realistically and succeeds in representing the real human being as opposed to a sympathetic movie character – a trap that so many other actors have fallen into in other films.
It’s Brian’s relationship with Melinda that really elevates the film to a higher level, though. It’s through Melinda’s eyes that the viewer witnesses Brian and his insane relationship with the controlling Dr. Landy. Banks effectively showcases Melinda’s confusion regarding Dr. Landy’s hold on Brian, while also giving her the strength to eventually stand up to him. She also does a great job of showing Melinda’s genuine affection for Brian, making it easy to understand the love that she begins to feel for him, especially in a situation where so many people would run away from the drama instead. The chemistry between the two actors feels genuine, adding to the emotional bond that grows between their two characters, a bond that shines through in some of the movie’s strongest moments.
Of course, we can’t forget to mention the fascinating performance by Giamatti as the doctor who has become Brian’s overbearing guardian, keeping control over his life through medical misdiagnosis and drugs. Giamatti plays it smart and is careful not to take his performance over the top, though he does come close to crossing the line a couple of times. The real-life Brian Wilson went as far as to praise Giamatti’s performance when, at the SXSW 2015, he called it, “…so true to life that it absolutely scared me…” Giamatti’s performance is a perfect counterbalance to Banks’ Melinda. Landy is a man who is taking advantage of Brian’s mental illness, using it as a control mechanism to get what he wants, while Melinda selflessly wants to free him from Landy’s grasp, without getting anything back in return. At one point, she even tells Brian’s housekeeper, Gloria, “I do not want to be one more person in his life who wants something from him.”
Over the years, there have been many great music biopics presented to the moviegoing audience. THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY, LA BAMBA, THE DOORS, WALK THE LINE and ROCKETMAN are some of the best. Yet, there is one more that needs to be added to the list as it is begging to be discovered by more people: LOVE & MERCY is it.
Watch LOVE & MERCY
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