LOVE & MERCY - review

LOVE & MERCY
Director: Bill Pohlad
Cast: John Cusak, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti

The story of the creative genius of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson and his struggle with his emerging psychosis in the 60's and his struggle in the 80's under the 'care' of his psychotherapist Dr. Eugene Landy. It cuts between the 60's and the 80's and entangles the two tales together in a discordant manner that is somehow harmonious.

1960's Brian Wilson is played by Paul Dano, and takes us through the time in his life where he was working on the greatest album of his life while the rest of the band was on tour. He struggled with his own inner demons, and his obsession to please his father, a marriage he was too young for, drugs his mind couldn't handle and surmounting pressure from the band to produce a gold album that lived up to the standards of his earlier works.

Paul Dano is 1960's Brian Wilson

image via  Icon Films

1980's Brian Wilson is played by John Cusack, and takes us through a time in his life where he was highly medicated and barely functioning for a disease he didn't suffer from all under the care of his slightly off-balance and manipulative psychotherapist Dr Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), who was not only controlling his life, isolating him and over medicating him, but taking advantage of him financially. In the 80's Wilson meets and falls in love with Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), who sees what is happening to Wilson and does all that she can to intervene.

John Cusack is 1980's Brian Wilson

image via Icon Films

There have been other on-screen versions of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, I haven't seen them, but they exist. I'm not sure if there is inspiration taken from the other bio-pics, for this version, and I don't know how much of this story is fact and how much is fiction, but I don't think it matters. I also wondered how it would work with Paul Dano and John Cusack playing the same character with so little physical resemblance, but I don't think it mattered either. At least it didn't matter to me and after my initial questioning of it, I didn't think of it again during the film. 

The Beach BOys as depicted in LOVE & MERCY

image via Icon Films

I didn't know much about Wilson's story in the 80's, and I was amazed and saddened by what happened to Wilson, and yet somehow not at all surprised. I was not surprised that there are people in the world that could take advantage of someone like that and destroy their life in such an isolating way. I would like to do a bit more research into this story and find out how much is true story and how much is fluff, and if there's anyone out there who knows more about this I would be happy to hear about it! I love a bio-pic, but I am always fascinated by how much is real and how much is fluff. 

Cusack and Banks as Wilson and Ledbetter

image via Icon Films

The casting in this film was fantastic, Paul Dano and John Cusack both play an incredible Brian Wilson during those periods in his life, and they carried the story well. It could have been a disaster if one was better than the other in the role of Wilson, but they were astounding in this film. Elizabeth Banks' Melinda Ledbetter was every bit the angel in opposition to Paul Giamatti's Dr. Eugene Landy, who is pure evil in this film. While neither of them quite match the quality of acting by Dano and Cusack, they certainly don't let the film down. 

Elizabeth Banks is Melinda Ledbetter

Paul Giamatti is Dr. Eugene Landy

images via Icon Film

The music through the film is magical - I mean it is Brian Wilson after all - and it was woven throughout the film wonderfully. The film is quite choppy and as I mentioned earlier discordant, but somehow it comes together nicely and that falls largely on director Bill Pohlad and his strange ability to make the discordance work for this film rather than piss the viewr right off. Don't get me wrong, there were some omembers of the audience who complained (very loudly throughout the whole film) that it was hard to follow, and that perhaps they were all on the same drugs as Brian Wilson, but for me it worked. 

If you're not into the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, or bio-pics in general, then don't bother with this one, but I liked it and if you are into those things then I think it's worth the 20-something dollars to see it. 

3.5 out of 5

xoxo

The Blonde Bombshell