Movie Review: Better Man

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C+

Despite some visual gimmicks, this is your typical movie biopic of a musician. 

This film tells the story of British pop star Robbie Willaims' rise to fame and his struggles with said fame. Unlike a traditional biopic, this movie has Robbie Willaims visually appear as a CGI monkey. While the filmmakers try to give a reason for this by having him state that he feels less evolved or by trying to use this as a metaphor for him being a dancing monkey, this choice comes off like just what it is. This is simply a gimmick to try and make this feel different from all the other recent musical biopics. The gimmick though not only doesn't stop this from feeling like other movies most of the time, but it can also be very distracting the rest of the time. This is not the only visual gimmickry here; many scenes try to use over the top visuals to show our main character's inner state. However, the metaphors here are heavy handed and too obvious. There is nothing deep or artistic about them, all the do is take you out of the movie. 

Yet as much as this film tries to avoid being a conventional biopic, it completely is one. There is nothing in this movie that has not been done by other biopics in the past. However, it is the more conventional parts of this movie that work best. It is easy to relate to Robbie's self-doubt and his need to prove to everyone (including himself) that he is more talented than he has been told he is. We all have these feelings and like Robbie even if we were to become extremely successful, we would still doubt ourselves at times. We want him to prove himself because we want to believe in not only him but ourselves as well. His struggles with depression are also very well handled here as it shows a fairly realistic look at what depression is really like. The songs are also very well performed and I have no doubts that the music here will earn Robbie new fans.

I will admit though that Robbie Willaims' narration (provided by himself) often feels too self-congratulatory and can make this movie feel like a bit of an ego trip for him. 

Though this movie tries hard to stand as something different from your average biopic, it actually works best when it is at its most conventional. 

-Michael J. Ruhland