Directed By Michael Gracey

Starring – Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton

The Plot – Based on the true story of the meteoric rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable resurgence of British pop superstar Robbie Williams. Under the visionary direction of Michael Gracey, the film is uniquely told from Robbie’s perspective, capturing his signature wit and indomitable spirit. It follows Robbie’s journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist, all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.

Rated R for drug use, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some violent content.

Better Man | Official Trailer (2024 Movie) – Robbie Williams, Michael Gracey, Jonno Davies

POSITIVES

Having known very little about Robbie Williams music catalogue, and even less about his personal life, I looked forward to the kind of journey that ‘Better Man’ would take me on, with an abundance of creative and execution surprises that made this stand out in a growing field of uninspired music biopics that don’t have a tenth of this movie’s charm and emotional depth. For a 129-minute experience, ‘Better Man’ feels like it captures the complete picture of Williams’ long-distance journey, both in the backstory of his time as a troubled youth, but also the unfiltered accessibility of his conflicts with fame, to which the script approaches with commendable transparency without the need to make Robbie something that he rightfully isn’t. As to where most biopics will cover a trouble period in the lives of the depicted musician, they often come without truly sacrificing the integrity of their redeeming nature, but here Williams is clearly not proud of the choices and many losses of his life that have come as a result of selfish indulgences, and the desire to not abridge any of it in the material does entail a surprisingly deep and hard-hitting emotional journey, full of metaphorical renderings and psychological meanings that make this the thinking man’s triumph of music biopics, despite a C.G-heavy monkey design for Williams that immediately challenges audiences to take it seriously. On that design choice, Williams has always asserted himself as less-evolved than other people, and as a result of no character in the movie commenting on his ape-like appearance, it implies that the depiction is a metaphorical reflection of Robbie’s self-perception and state of mind, a fact that becomes all the more evident as he battles other ape-like incarnations of himself, the longer the film persists. The C.G work here feels effortlessly effective, even if it fully lacks believability in its authentic dimensions, with a super imposed aspect placed on the faces of the various actors, in order to maintain the emotional detectability of a human with the appearance of an ape, which works charmingly for what the movie requires out of it, recreating some of Williams most notorious performances with meticulous attention to detail that helps even hardcore fans feel like they’re experiencing them for the first time. Much kudos also goes to other technical aspects of the presentation that mirror the infectious radiance and spectacle of the performer, primarily during fantastically imaginative dance sequences that refuse to hold back on the climaxing energy of its pageantry that feel impossible not to smile from. Between razor sharp dance choreography throughout a barrage of Williams’ favorites, smoothly interactive cinematography weaving in and out of the physical conflicts of the characters involved, and most notably some stellar creative transitions of backdrops in the movie’s editing schemes, these performance pieces unabashedly embrace the musical aspect to its music biopic captivity, in turn brandishing no shortage of tenacity and tinsel to the engagement that truly maximizes the kind of effort that went into them mirroring Williams own distinguished personality, which cater naturally to the cinematic experience. On the subject of Robbie, the performances are also quite meaningful to the movie’s integrity, with the decorated trio of Jonno Davies, Adam Tucker, and Carter J. Murphy each bringing something enhancing to their various portrayals of the complex front man. Davies obviously has the greatest significance here, as he covers the entirety of Robbie’s adult life, both with raging intensity and springing narcissism that truly emphasize the anxieties of Robbie’s growing uneasiness within the public eye, but even 10-year-old Murphy can’t be overlooked, as it’s his innocence and ambitiousness that set the movements to motion of Williams own thirst for fame, working cohesively with the designs and expressions of the aforementioned C.G monkey better than either of his co-stars, at least for my money. Williams own voice work is limited to just the overhead narration that steers the narrative in its various directions, and while I typically find narration a meaningless tool in movies that merely echo what we experience in the depths of a scene or sequence, here the intrusions from Williams are taken from recorded interviews between he and Gracey, without the intention of being shaped for a film. Gracey did this as a way of capturing Robbie in his own voice and perspective of telling the story, with as little outsider intrusion as possible, and as a result it makes a musician feel as close to their biopic product as ever.

NEGATIVES

Even though ‘Better Man’ was a pleasant surprise in nearly ever facet of the production, there are still a couple of unfortunate aspects that took my investment down a notch, primarily with one side of the aforementioned emotional roller-coaster not quite living up as consistently as the others. I’m disappointingly referring to the movie’s comedy that feels most palpable during the movie’s opening act, with a try-hard emphasis for crude material that saturated its flavor for appeal quite early and often in the deliveries. The British material here will already have a difficult time translating to an American audience, especially in some of its own native tongue for dialogue, but the gags more often than not lacked a creative factor or building momentum that made them such a vital commodity in their inception, and as a result I found myself overwhelmed by auditorium silence that spoke the loudest on mine and surrounding audiences appreciation for this movie’s attempt at trying to be humorous. Beyond flat humor, the film does begin to feel the weight of its ambitious run time, primarily during a long-winded third act that subscribes to too much of a good thing. While this section of the film was easily my favorite of the entire movie, for how Williams’ demons eventually catch up to him, the smothering and repetition of one conflict after another does directly overwhelm a decent amount of the film’s fun factor, and with no tonal deviation in this section of the movie’s last half hour, it does start to feel like a wet blanket with certain scenes needing another spin through the editing room to keep them from drowning on for too long. I wouldn’t necessarily cut down on any of the film’s 129-minutes, but I would’ve used them accordingly to flesh out more of the supporting characters, whose arcs aren’t quite met with the kind of emotional heft that this climax was pulling on so forcefully. Particularly, Robbie’s mom, despite being acknowledged as a vital part to his upbringing, goes virtually absent during the movie’s opening act, or Robbie’s romance with Nicole Appleton becoming sporadic during the second, and when held in contrast to the dimensions of Robbie and his grandmother (Played movingly by Alison Steadman), pale tragically in comparison. While it’s obvious that this is Robbie’s movie, first and foremost, more definition to his surrounding pieces would’ve elicited a deeper meaning to how they change with Robbie’s own toxic evolution, in turn appraising even more impact to a third act climax that hits enough, but could’ve leveled with the kind of piercing revelations that I honestly wouldn’t expect from a Robbie Williams biopic.

OVERALL
‘Better Man’ goes ape towards crafting one of the more memorably introspective music biopics in quite sometime, in the tumultuous times of Robbie Williams unfiltered and chaotic life that nearly killed him. With top tier production values eliciting a pageantry for spectacle, as well as meaningfully sentimental dramatic heft, the film, like Williams’ music, has the ability to infectiously charm you, even if the crowd goes mild during comedic beats lacking a distinguished punchline, producing a vehicle for Williams that simultaneously values the lows of rock bottom with the highs of interpersonal triumph.

My Grade: 7.8 or B