I want to first compliment Love and Mercy for the talent of being a bio picture about someone in the the music industry, someone who has a significant impact on the music industry, without resorting to the standard biography structure Hollywood has grown accustomed to. Walk the Line and Ray were both very good films, but if you watch them back to back they're almost the exact same movie about two different singers. We begin in the heyday of their careers, then go back to their childhoods and something traumatic that happened, then to the early years where they realize they were good at music and forming the band. Then, a little success. Then, a lot of success. Then meeting the woman of their dreams. Then, succumbing to cheating, alcohol, and drugs. Then, the downfall. Then, finally, realizing their mistakes and rehabbing all of their vices out of them so they can be the picture perfect person we always wished and hoped they'd be. It's a pretty standard bio structure that is almost entirely overshadowed by terrific performances by amazing actors. While Love and Mercy, at its core, is about the life of The Beach Boys' singer Brian Wilson, it takes a unique viewpoint and a different direction in telling the story of the man with the angelic voice.
What's different about Love and Mercy than Walk The Line or Ray or even last year's Get On Up is they we aren't following the man from birth, to success, to love, to downfall and all that. When we begin the film Wilson is already an accomplished musician. The Beach Boys are already platinum selling artists. They're already on-tour all over the world. This is great because it's not exactly prudent that we know HOW Brian Wilson came to be a part of the group and HOW the group gained popularity, but more about the life of the man who hid a bi-polar, paranoid schizophrenia from everyone for years. It hurt his relationships both in his marriage and family, but also within the band. However, what it did do, was help him to be able to produce one of the greatest albums of all time: Pet Sounds. The film cuts back and forth from when Wilson was in his late 20s and is played by Paul Dano to much later in life when he's not even making music, is watched constantly by a doctor and a medical entourage and is played by John Cusack. Both halves of the man make up the movie, yet each half compliments the other and pushes the narrative forward in a different, yet effective way. When Dano is Wilson, he's slowly starting to hear "the voices in his head" and getting constant inspiration for their next album Pet Sounds. We even learn that the group wasn't that crazy about making it because it wasn't their already established sound. Wilson is churning out music while struggling to deal with his newfound disability. When Cusack is Wilson, it's his relationship with car saleswoman Melinda (Elizabeth Banks) and trying to regain what a normal life is. In the Cusack portions of the film it's just as much Melinda's story slowly learning who Wilson really is as well as struggling with it and accepting it.
It's a very emotionally powerful film that is intensely eye-opening and moving, especially for anyone with any sort of relationship to music. The way the story is presented lends to a more affecting film, but it's the performances that keep you locked in. Paul Dano continues to grow as an actor and paints Brian Wilson as a scared kid who just wants to make music, but only needs to lead a normal, quiet life to be happy. John Cusack, who has become somewhat of a straight-to-DVD joke as of the last few years, is finally back to form reminding us that he is still an incredible actor and doesn't deserve to only star on the covers of sad Redbox only movies you've never heard of. He's just as scared as Wilson when he's young, but there's this tragic facade of trying to be normal and live that normal life he's always wanted. Even Elizabeth Banks shines as Wilson's love interest. She's able to react to Wilson's abonormalities with just a look that says more than any dialogue ever could. Her inner debate of whether or not it's a good idea to continue a relationship with such a damaged person plays out over her expressions only.
In a summer chock full of disappointments, only a few bright lights shine, and Love and Mercy is certainly among them. It's a tragic film, but a delight to watch. It's a story you certainly didn't know before, but oddly should know. It's beautiful to see two talented actors lend their talents to the same complicated person. Whether you're a Beach Boys fan or not, this is a film not just for music fans, but for all movie films alike. Not just one of the best movies of the summer, but definitely one of the best films of the year.
A
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