Maestro (B or 3/4 stars)
Hot off of his iconic version of A Star is Born from 2018, Bradley Cooper produces, directs, co-writes & stars as famed composer/conductor, Leonard Bernstein in 'Maestro'. This film covers some 45 yrs. of Leonard Bernstein's celebrated life, beginning in 1943 as he conducts the NY Philharmonic for the 1st time & ending in 1988 as he thinks upon his own mortality, but still conscious of his continuing devotion for creating music. The plot focuses on 3 aspects of his personality: Bernstein the wildly talented musician, Bernstein the troubled, conflicted husband, & Bernstein the closeted bisexual.
In 1946, Leonard meets actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) at a party and, despite his romantic involvement with clarinetist David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer), the two fall in love. After various stumbling blocks & two engagements, Leonard & Felicia finally marry, and even have 3 children together. He has deep affection for his wife, but there isn't much passion and, while his career skyrockets, her career as an actress stalls. Felicia is all-too aware of his infidelities & even tolerates them as long as he is discreet. Howwwever, being discreet is not always something Leonard can hold true to. Melodrama ensues throughout this biopic.
Right off the bat, I was worried about how this film would unfold. The characters' highbrow conversations & tendency to talk over each other/finishing each other's sentences in clipped, overlapping dialogue made me feel disconnected & lost; I do not like this trend in film -- sacrificing comprehension of a conversation for faux-authentic verbal exchanges. It's one thing if the conversation is meaningful ... but there's little of that early on. Who wants to strain to figure out what is being said? I know I sure don't. Thankfully, as the film progresses, the dialogue becomes less mannered and more naturalistic.
'Maestro' also falls prey to a pretty common flaw of biopics: trying to condense too much material {over a long period of time} into roughly 2 hours. The result is that some scenes are rushed and/or compressed, relationships develop erratically, & there are gaps in the narrative resulting from leaps forward in time. Nonetheless, despite these issues, Bradley Cooper's telling of Bernstein's life story contains moments of cinematic passion thanks to his directorial verve, the stellar performances & some scintillating craftsmanship. The film is worth seeing, but yeah, the characters' emotional complexity is diminished by the flaws in the script. A few too many scenes lack an element of surprise. The script lacks forthrightness; so as to avoid any true controversy or complexity to Bernstein. Perhaps Cooper, who made this film as a labor of love, has too much respect for his subject to show his warts-&-all.
All that said, I can't fault the performances, the artful cinematography and, there are a host of memorable scenes. i.e., genuine moments of tenderness btwn. Bernstein & Felicia during their courtship; later, a riveting, volcanic argument btwn. them on Thanksgiving; and best of all is Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra for Mahler's No. 2 Resurrection at the Ely Cathedral -- it's simply a master class in camerawork & impassioned acting. Visually, Matthew Libatique's gauzy, 1940/50s black-&-white photography and his bright, colorful 1960/70s scenes are stunningly shot.
Bradley Cooper alters his appearance {prosthetics & incredible aging make-up/hair} to resemble the titular Maestro. To maximize his portrayal, he spent 6+ yrs. working on imitative conducting & perfecting the man's speech. I was most impressed by Cooper in a scene where Bernstein realizes that he just lied to his daughter -- the camera lingers long on Cooper as a myriad of miniscule emotions lay bare on his face. Cooper captures Bernstein's vigor, his ego, his vitality; and yet, while it is clear how much work Cooper put into the portrayal, it shouldn't be 'work'; he should imbue the subject with an inner life that I don't think was quite achieved.
Carey Mulligan, on the other hand, it superb, throughout; lending nuance & humanity to a character that is a bit too underwritten. The movie is titled 'Maestro', and yet, the focus isn't on Bernstein's music career, but on his checkered marriage; which makes it all the more disappointing that we don't get a real sense of who she was outside of her being an actress, an inexplicably forgiving wife, & a woman defeated by cancer. Mulligan is riveting and, thankfully, elevates her material.
You know, filmmaker Bradley Cooper provides some wonderfully grandiose moments & beautiful segments. But perhaps he was too reverential to his subject. Thusly, Cooper truncates more interesting aspects of the man to the point where I became a bit ambivalent about what I was watching; making it a decent movie with good material, but it needed a tighter focus; which would have yielded stronger & more interesting characterizations.
In 1946, Leonard meets actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) at a party and, despite his romantic involvement with clarinetist David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer), the two fall in love. After various stumbling blocks & two engagements, Leonard & Felicia finally marry, and even have 3 children together. He has deep affection for his wife, but there isn't much passion and, while his career skyrockets, her career as an actress stalls. Felicia is all-too aware of his infidelities & even tolerates them as long as he is discreet. Howwwever, being discreet is not always something Leonard can hold true to. Melodrama ensues throughout this biopic.
Right off the bat, I was worried about how this film would unfold. The characters' highbrow conversations & tendency to talk over each other/finishing each other's sentences in clipped, overlapping dialogue made me feel disconnected & lost; I do not like this trend in film -- sacrificing comprehension of a conversation for faux-authentic verbal exchanges. It's one thing if the conversation is meaningful ... but there's little of that early on. Who wants to strain to figure out what is being said? I know I sure don't. Thankfully, as the film progresses, the dialogue becomes less mannered and more naturalistic.
'Maestro' also falls prey to a pretty common flaw of biopics: trying to condense too much material {over a long period of time} into roughly 2 hours. The result is that some scenes are rushed and/or compressed, relationships develop erratically, & there are gaps in the narrative resulting from leaps forward in time. Nonetheless, despite these issues, Bradley Cooper's telling of Bernstein's life story contains moments of cinematic passion thanks to his directorial verve, the stellar performances & some scintillating craftsmanship. The film is worth seeing, but yeah, the characters' emotional complexity is diminished by the flaws in the script. A few too many scenes lack an element of surprise. The script lacks forthrightness; so as to avoid any true controversy or complexity to Bernstein. Perhaps Cooper, who made this film as a labor of love, has too much respect for his subject to show his warts-&-all.
All that said, I can't fault the performances, the artful cinematography and, there are a host of memorable scenes. i.e., genuine moments of tenderness btwn. Bernstein & Felicia during their courtship; later, a riveting, volcanic argument btwn. them on Thanksgiving; and best of all is Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra for Mahler's No. 2 Resurrection at the Ely Cathedral -- it's simply a master class in camerawork & impassioned acting. Visually, Matthew Libatique's gauzy, 1940/50s black-&-white photography and his bright, colorful 1960/70s scenes are stunningly shot.
Bradley Cooper alters his appearance {prosthetics & incredible aging make-up/hair} to resemble the titular Maestro. To maximize his portrayal, he spent 6+ yrs. working on imitative conducting & perfecting the man's speech. I was most impressed by Cooper in a scene where Bernstein realizes that he just lied to his daughter -- the camera lingers long on Cooper as a myriad of miniscule emotions lay bare on his face. Cooper captures Bernstein's vigor, his ego, his vitality; and yet, while it is clear how much work Cooper put into the portrayal, it shouldn't be 'work'; he should imbue the subject with an inner life that I don't think was quite achieved.
Carey Mulligan, on the other hand, it superb, throughout; lending nuance & humanity to a character that is a bit too underwritten. The movie is titled 'Maestro', and yet, the focus isn't on Bernstein's music career, but on his checkered marriage; which makes it all the more disappointing that we don't get a real sense of who she was outside of her being an actress, an inexplicably forgiving wife, & a woman defeated by cancer. Mulligan is riveting and, thankfully, elevates her material.
You know, filmmaker Bradley Cooper provides some wonderfully grandiose moments & beautiful segments. But perhaps he was too reverential to his subject. Thusly, Cooper truncates more interesting aspects of the man to the point where I became a bit ambivalent about what I was watching; making it a decent movie with good material, but it needed a tighter focus; which would have yielded stronger & more interesting characterizations.