Love & Mercy

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2015)

Love & Mercy, Bill Pohlad's bifurcated biopic of Brian Wilson, takes place in two distinct periods of the former Beach Boy's life, with two actors playing Wilson. Paul Dano plays the younger Wilson of the 1960s, who is struggling emotionally as he tries to create what would become the Pet Sounds album. And John Cusack plays the older Wilson of the 1980s, who was emancipated from bed but unaware of the cruelty and manipulation being inflicted upon him by his doctor, Eugene Landy, who is played by Paul Giamatti.
Love & Mercy is a movie that possibly doesn't work on paper, but has been created with genuine affection and boasts two marvellous central performances that help make this story cohesive. It's also to the film's benefit that a non-linear narrative is employed. This allows for touching and poignant connections between time-frames, which helps to create a very real person in Wilson. Dano is quite incredible in his transformation, looking very much like Wilson and occasionally singing, with his voice seamlessly blending into Wilson's own during scenes in the recording studio. Dano has proved himself capable of playing unusual and troubled characters and he delves deep into Wilson's psyche, revealing astonishing depths in a character who can be soft spoken and tender one moment, panic- stricken the next and in the throws of genius soon after. Cusack counterpoints this with a very subtle and introverted performance that's almost like a little boy lost, who finds himself through the love and affection of Elizabeth Banks' Melinda Ledbetter. She's almost akin to an audience surrogate in these parts of the movie, as we see what becomes of Wilson in the 1980s and how tightly his life is controlled by Dr. Landy. Ledbetter meets Wilson by chance when he's buying a car from her showroom, but they form a bond that only strengthens as she sees everything that's wrong in Brian's life. Giamatti is on scenery- chewing form as Landy, veering awfully close to caricature at times, with his character being very one-dimensional and vilified as much as Leadbetter is sanctified.
Music, of course, is an integral element within Love & Mercy and it's Brian's searching for a new sound that reminded me somewhat of The Glenn Miller Story and another musical genius striving to find something original and unique. There's also a nice recreation of some Beach Boys stage performances and video clips, along with the use of 16mm stock in some scenes. The scenes in the studio when Pet Sounds is being recorded has genuine authenticity - right down to Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye - whilst there are familiar elements abound, such as the musicians wearing fireman helmets, Brian asking if he could get a horse into the studio, lying in bed, the piano in a sandbox and some obligatory namechecks.
What Love & Mercy accomplishes so well is finding a way into the head of Brian Wilson without becoming obscure or indulgent in itself. There is some use of creative license, of course, especially in the later years, but this is a movie that's at once beautiful and wondrous, but frightening and often quite sad. Dano and Cusack are splendid as Wilson, and whilst Ledbetter is whiter-than-white, Elizabeth Banks brings such luminosity to the film that it's impossible to be cynical about this aspect of a movie that sits comfortably alongside Ray, Selena and Walk the Line as one of the best musical biopics of the past twenty years, or more.