Great Characters and Acting, an Interesting Story, but a Little Slow

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2016)

Love & Mercy follows Brian Wilson, a member of the Beach Boys band in the past, when he struggles with being in a band and develops mental illness, and in the future when poor caretakers and his illness affects his new-found love life.
The plot is one that I think many people would be interested in. I myself never listened to the Beach Boys, but I know lot's of people did. With a story like this I think it would interest a lot of people. Fortunately, I like stories about mentally ill people, so this movie still caught my attention. The way the story is presented is really great, with it switching back and forth between two different time periods. It doesn't ever show too little of one time period, and both are very interesting.
The characters are pretty great. John Cusack especially does a great job as Brian Wilson, but Paul Dano is equally, if not more, fantastic. Everyone else is very good in their roles, but these two in particular stood out. The characters themselves are interesting too, and they feel pretty real for the most part.
My only real complaint about this movie is that it could be a little slow. Maybe that's because I watched it late at night, or maybe not. Either way, it didn't always hold my complete attention.
Overall Love & Mercy is fantastic. The cast is great, the characters are great, it's presented in an interesting way and is just an interesting story in general. It suffers from being a little slow, but otherwise it's a fantastic movie. In the end I would certainly recommend this movie.