Brian Wilson, the creative force behind The Beach Boys, has often described his music as “pocket symphonies to God.”
The way the combined harmonies of the group soar to high peaks as if reaching for heaven from a bed of orchestral swirls can attest to that. But, with good there is bad, and there were many demons conflicting with the heavenly melodies being birthed inside of Brian Wilson’s head, leading to a long period of instability and depression: the kind of turmoil that is ripe for the film treatment. Covering much of this period is the new dramatisation of Brian Wilson’s career, 'Love & Mercy'.
Paul Dano portrays the younger Brian Wilson, enjoying the success from the hits that he has created with The Beach Boys, but suddenly becoming plagued with anxiety that he believes is induced by the stress of touring. In an effort to put them at bay, Brian offers a compromise to the rest of the group that instead of touring he’ll stay in the studio and work on what will become their masterpiece, 'Pet Sounds'. However, instead of calming himself with creating and working in the studio – the one place he still has some control in his life - he is still the subject of abuse by his despicable father (played by Bill Camp). Over time his mind disintegrates to the point that he is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.
Intertwined in these flashbacks are scenes from 20 years in the future with Brian (played in these scenes by John Cusack) as a broken man. He is heavily medicated and going through intensive and unethical treatments with his psychologist, producer and legal guardian, Dr Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti, who interestingly bears a striking resemblance to another figure of fear in Brian’s early life, Phil Spector). A chance meeting in a car dealership leads to the love and mercy of the movie’s title that is so lacking in Brian’s life, Melinda (Elizabeth Banks). As Melinda enters Brian’s life, she soon sees Landy’s treatment as manipulative, and endeavours to save Brian from both Landy and himself.Rather than a straight narrative, we are shown two different sides of a fractured mirror, intertwining to tell a bigger story. 'Love & Mercy' is structured in a way that shows how much of an affect mental illness can have on a person, even going so far as to creating a completely new person that is far removed to the one that they once were. John Cusack portrays Brian superbly as an introvert who has sunk so far into himself that his features, actions and speech are minute, as he would be after 20 years of depression and anxiety. Paul Dano, however, plays the younger Brian with much confidence, especially in the studio scenes, but shows his range as an actor with his heartbreaking performance during scenes portraying Brian’s nervous breakdowns.
As can be expected from a film about one of the greatest living songwriters, the soundtrack to this film is one of the elements that make this film shine. Composed by Atticus Ross ('The Social Network', 'Gone Girl'), and not Animal Collective as I initially thought, the soundtrack blends the sweetness of a Beach Boy harmony with discordance as a reflection of the disorder inside of Brian Wilson’s head. Some creative sound mixing further magnifies the emotion in scenes, playing less like musical accompaniment and more as inner monologues.
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One of the traps of music biopics that 'Love & Mercy' falls into is poor dialogue, with much of it feeling like references found on Wikipedia and inserted into the film to satisfy the fans. However, the delivery of cast members Cusack, Dano, Giamatti, and Banks overcomes it much of the time and make their lines have emotional resonance. The direction of Bill Pohlad should also be commended, especially for avoiding another biopic trap of feeling exploitive of Brian Wilson, like Eugene Landy appeared to be. 'Love & Mercy' is a remarkable and emotional story about one of the greatest songwriters in history and is highly enjoyable.
Three and a half Californian suns.
'Love & Mercy' is in cinemas now. Win tickets to the opening night gala of 'Love & Mercy' at Dendy Portside.
