Robbie Williams wasn’t serious when he said he felt like a performing monkey. But that’s exactly how “The Greatest Showman” director Michael Gracey interprets the remark in “Better Man,” a biopic musical that seems out of place, especially if a human was playing Robbie Williams.
However, it is difficult to realistically consider a British boy bad in a solo career built around a CG chimp or a conception where such approach would even be relevant, and it is even more difficult to actually find the movie compelling. Gracey walks through the zigzags in the life of Williams, from his rising with Take That to the live concert at Knebworth that was contributed by sadly uncreative advertising, but does so with a CG chimpanzee image digitally placed over the head of the pop star. As surprising as it is, that device works and gives the picture a uniqueness often lacking in superficial pop legend biopics. If you want to watch Robbie Williams in a 4-hour long docuseries and give him the glory and respect he quite needs, find the series on Netflix. But if it was a chimps fist that decided the course of history this movie comes in very handy.
Gracey, in attempting to redirect the focus from Williams on himself, places Titus that looks very much like Caesar in the most recent “Planet of the Apes” series. Robert Williams’ casting decision must be Center of Attention in biographical movies singing “Who’s gonna play him” sits at the heart of the matter. So, if you are concerned, for example, that the entire chimpanzee business might be somehow too distracting, do not forget how obtuse it was to pretend that the look Taron Egerton had dictated how Elton John lived his life or how two denture only could make Rami Malek into a flamboyant figure of Freddie Mercury.
In the last months, “Stardust”, “Back to Black”, even “Elvis”, the impression of separation between the main the two lead characters and those singers is what the people feel let down by. However, this time ‘Better Man’ falls solidly on that aesthetically annoying basis, which is a good thing for a change. Firstly, American’s do not actually know who Williams is so there’s no challenge in accepting what Gracey has to offer. Even better, the Chimp holding space over the lead makes the most sense as animals always emote all over the place and the expressing frosty nature of the Monkey guarantees that the movie is built around such a strong boosted inherently animatic crafted piece of thespian arts.
With “Better Man,” the musical maestro adds ridiculously complicated technical challenges to his repertoire such as the infuriating number “Rock DJ” which took place in a packed Regent Street and was filmed seamlessly over the course of four days and edited to appear like one shot, or the Come Undone sequence which features him speeding out of the London boyband breakup and attempting to ram his car into an oncoming bus only to crash into a phalanx of papparazzi. These numbers provide the needed emotional context in ways that are so incredibly dynamic that mainstream tuners are left far in the background.
And yet, “Better Man” also has the shortcoming which is common to almost all pop star biopics: They should have picked a defining moment in the life of their subjects instead, these biopics are unfortunately cradle to grave in timeline which is not the case with most documents which cover graves to cradles. The most engaging and entertaining subjects so often get told in the same way: they’re easy because they fit into archetypes: they’re talented, someone notices them, they get rich and then self destruct with substance abuse, cheating and other myriad of issues. If them there’s an over dose then it means that ordinary people need not be famous as it has its own repercussions.
“Better Man” aspires to be “All That Jazz” but ultimately settles for the cliched redemption stories. It presents Robbie in flashbacks or, rather, a teenage chimp, who appears much smaller and hairier than the others his age. School isn’t really for Robbie and neither is sports; the only thing he seems to have fun with is making people laugh, as he finds out while rehearsing for a school play. The young boy does not lack a mischievous vision since he inherited such traits from his father, Peter Conway (the name he performs under in a cabaret and is played in this movie by Steve Pemberton) a man who most reluctantly leaves home when Robbie is still small to pursue his own career.
However, the reality is more multifaceted and it would be hard to regard Williams as anything but a sad man-child searching for the Father. Gracey spoke with the superstar at great length about him and then, getting co-writers Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole, figured out the story he wanted to discuss. It’s a tired perspective, yet exasperatingly good execution yes, Gracey is able to create balanced, multifaceted montages where very few cuts are noticeable; we are talking about the notorious level of artistry of the Wachowskis.
Let us think of Williams once again in the most pressured moment of his life. Knowing that his most unconditional supporter is gone, he gets ready to face his biggest show yet. The angle focuses on Robbie’s eye for detail and then shifts to a more complex view which showcases Robbie chains suspended while being roared. Revolving Robbie’s head on a stage thousands of fans deeply engaged in the centerpiece captures the stage as it overlooks its audience and penetrates their our relation to the character perfectly. Eyes really add value to this scene and to any other, period. They change the whole scene: captivating green eyes that are somehow more human than apes. Crucial Wētā warriors Luke Millar and Andy Taylor went to extraordinary lengths to delve into hundreds of hours of historical film archives to ensure that every sneer, squint, and light-hearted wink captured on the camera is authentically Robbie’s.
At times, he is strikingly unrefined; Williams uses significant profanity and nudity, displaying such qualities that Gracey mischievously recreates here with the chimp in interesting poses. He includes a version of the “Rock DJ” music video, in which Williams goes back to his cellular structure literally. Within the course of the film, the character played by the star’s ape avatar falls in love with another singer Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) and later roots for her only to come off feeling very disappointed when she decided to ‘kill’ their baby for the purpose of a number one single. Even his bisexuality is up in the air, making “Better Man” a more interesting film than “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Same goes for the clinical depression he suffers from even though the death match between all of his different characters which looks a lot like ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ is the self-destructive tendency taken a bit far.
Although Williams does manage to get very dark, it is impossible not to be charmed by him, made even more so by the monkey thing. Actually, Gracey’s chimpanzee conceit was always a stretch, for the ‘performing monkey’ put-down only applies to Williams when he is acting on someone’s orders. The chimp portraying the CG ape has a human behind it too Jonno Davies, the actor who had most of his more demanding scenes on the set, consisting of the inventive choreography by Ashley Wallen. It is impossible to determine how much of Davies’ work is present, however, the finishing-touch animation is so good that the Academy will have to place it in the right category and award it.
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