Great Performances in Entertaining Bio Pic

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2015)

Love & Mercy (2014)
*** (out of 4)
Good and entertaining bio-pic of The Beach Boys' main member Brian Wilson who would write and compose some of the greatest songs ever recorded while at the same time struggling with mental illness.
LOVE & MERCY is an incredibly good movie but at the same time it's really impossible to try and really capture Wilson in a two hour running time. The only real flaw with this movie is that it clocks in at just 121 minutes and that's simply not enough time to fully capture the genius of Wilson but for the most part this movie does a very good job at explaining his early life as well as one of the most troubled periods of his life when he was struggling to cope with his mental illness due to a worthless man taking advantage of him.
There's no question that the greatest thing this movie offers are the performances by Paul Dano who plays the young Wilson and John Cusack who plays the older version. The movie goes back and forth between the early days and the later conflict and it's amazing to see how well these scenes play off one another and I thought it was easy to see both actors in the role. Dano clearly steals the film as he has to deal with the stuff dealing with The Beach Boys as well as the start of Wilson's mental breakdown. Just watching the actor makes you feel as if you're watching a documentary and seeing something real. Dano's take on God Only Knows is without question the highlight of the picture. As for Cusack, his role shows a much more troubled Wilson and the actor turns in one of the best performances of his career. Both Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti are extremely effective as well.
Director Bill Pohlad does a very good job at keeping the two story lines moving and working together. Of course there's also plenty of great music on the soundtrack with various classics from The Beach Boys as well as a solo song from Wilson's latest album. If you're a fan of Brian Wilson then I think you're going to enjoy watching the film and if you're unfamiliar with him then you're going to get a good understanding of what he went through. Again, the film falls short of being great but there's certainly a lot of great stuff here.