Paul Dano and John Cusack are superb in this compelling and intimate biopic of Beach Boy Brian Wilson that focuses on two pivotal periods of his life.
There have been some superb biopics about musicians – particularly Back Beat and Nowhere Boy, both focusing on Beatle John Lennon, the Ian Curtis flick Control, and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, which tells Ian Dury's story - but until now, Lennon's contemporary, Brian Wilson, was largely overlooked. But it's definitely been worth the wait.
A co-founding member of seminal 1960s' band The Beach Boys, Wilson is nowadays regarded as a true musical genius, thanks mainly to the Pet Sounds album, but for most of the 1970s and '80s he was considered a forlorn figure, a broken man, a rock 'n' roll casualty. Love and Mercy focuses on these two pivotal periods, and goes a long way towards explaining what happened to him and how he managed to come out the other end, although far from unscathed.
By 1965 The Beach Boys were massively successful, but chief songwriter Brian Wilson (superbly played by Paul Dano) wanted more, especially after suffering a panic attack that causes him to retire from performing live with the band. Blown away by The Beatles' Rubber Soul and bored with the Beach Boys' creative cul-de-sac, he decides to create 'the greatest album ever made': Pet Sounds.
Bouncing backwards and forwards to the middle-aged Wilson (an impressively zonked John Cusack) of the late 1980s, we then see a confused, perma-dazed man at the mercy of manipulative psychotherapist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). When out buying a car, Wilson the elder meets saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), the pair develop a relationship, and she sets about freeing Wilson from Landy's clutches.
The film cleverly juxtaposes these two key phases of Wilson's life to great effect, revealing a sensitive artist who genuinely believes in the redeeming power of love and the uplifting quality of music and song. The result is an intense and very intimate portrait of a gifted, and tortured, man in a film that tells a remarkable story.
The late George Byrne would've loved it. I can't think of higher praise.
John Byrne
