I greatly admired Leonard Bernstein, played in this film by Bradley Cooper. Being from New York and Jewish, Bernstein was one of my heroes! I went to a couple of his concerts for children and watched most of them on TV. He was an iconic conductor and composer, my favorite composition of his being the score to West Side Story. How does one make a biopic of such a larger-than-life legend? What part of his life and his body of work gets the most attention? How does one convey what made him a great artist who deeply loved and was inspired by all types of music, but had a very complex and emotionally-conflicted personal life? Bradley Cooper, Co-writer, Director, and star of the film, took on this considerable challenge, but, at least in my opinion, he was only partially successful. I waited to see the movie on Netflix, instead of at the theater. This decision, in retrospect, was a mistake, since the musical scenes were important and would have been considerably better with Dolby sound. That being said, although the film has lots going for it, I don’t think I understand Bernstein or his life much better now than I did before I saw the movie.
On the positive side, the film has terrific cinematography, costumes, and production designs. There were some choices that I didn’t understand that I found gimmicky, but others may appreciate them more than I did. The first third of the film, which covers Bernstein’s life from about 25 to 30, is in black and white. I didn’t get why this choice was made. (Leonard was a wizard conductor and perhaps the film was paying homage to “The Wizard of Oz”?) The movie, except that section, was filmed in “Academy Ratio” (which is a rectangle), and only about the last half-hour was in cinemascope format. Once again, I have no clue what point Cooper was trying to make with this decision.
When an actor plays a real person, I think he/she has an advantage to win a Best Actor AA. Since we all know the person, and if the acting seems to “get” that individual, then he/she will be tough to beat. Cooper is a fine actor and I am sure he will be nominated by the Academy – he had Bernstein’s voice down, as well as his gestures (including how he held his cigarettes), but I found myself frequently noticing his acting. When that happens, at least to me, then I think there is over-acting. Cooper’s performance conveyed the more superficial aspects of Bernstein well, but I don’t think the more subtle emotions were portrayed well enough to deserve the award. Cooper did his best to do a spectacular job, even spending years learning how to conduct, in order to do a scene showing Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, playing Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony #2. (An AA, however, can’t be based on effort, but rather results.)
Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), thought she could handle Bernstein’s charisma, fame, bisexuality, and frequent travel (which greatly interfered with his role as a father), but she couldn’t, which led to considerable conflict and turmoil, even though they loved each other deeply. One might summarize this film by commenting that Conductor Bernstein at times didn’t know how to “conduct” himself! Mulligan does a fine job and she may get nominated for an AA, too. However, the dialogue between them is, for the most part, superficial, and the scenes between them with any depth stand out like a sore thumb. Furthermore, the film dragged at times.
I wished I had liked “Maestro” better since Cooper threw his heart and soul into it, but, for me, the movie isn’t that “note-worthy.”
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