Maestro is well-directed, well-cast, well-acted, well-shot, well-everything-one-would-hope-for in a movie. And, yet, I didn’t really like it, in the long run. I’ll get to why in a minute, as I’ll start with everything the movie does well. First, most of the conversation about the movie before it came out was about Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose. Nobody seemed interested in talking about how he clearly conveys the complexities of Leonard Bernstein. As good as he is, Carey Mulligan is even better as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia. She has her own range of complex behavior to convey, which she often does with gesture, as much as words.
Cooper-as-director conveys the love and friction between the two through a wide range of interesting decisions, such as when Lenny and Felicia are having an intense conversation by a swimming pool, yet Cooper keeps the camera at a distance, viewing them down a garden lane, so the reader doesn’t see their expressions as much as hears them through their tone. He also surprises the reader on a regular basis, such as when he shows Lenny and Felicia’s attempt to be together thwarted by the actors in a musical Bernstein has written, with their moving toward each other through a throng of sailors, all of whom are keeping them apart.
With all of these cinematic successes, one might wonder why I was left rather empty by the end of the film. It was one more movie/story about a man who is a genius, yet who treats his family (especially his wife) rather poorly, but she suffers through that because she still loves him, no matter what (and, yes, he still loves her, too). I understand the historical truth of this story, especially in the twentieth century, but there have to be other stories worth telling or, at least, a more interesting way of telling this story. Felicia seems to be both muse (at least early in the film) and support system (she understands how complex Lenny is, even to her own detriment), even giving up her acting career to take care of the family.
As the title of the film implies, it is masterfully made. I would be hard-pressed to criticize it as a movie in and of itself. I only wish all of that skill and talent would be put to use telling a story that we haven’t heard before.
Cooper-as-director conveys the love and friction between the two through a wide range of interesting decisions, such as when Lenny and Felicia are having an intense conversation by a swimming pool, yet Cooper keeps the camera at a distance, viewing them down a garden lane, so the reader doesn’t see their expressions as much as hears them through their tone. He also surprises the reader on a regular basis, such as when he shows Lenny and Felicia’s attempt to be together thwarted by the actors in a musical Bernstein has written, with their moving toward each other through a throng of sailors, all of whom are keeping them apart.
With all of these cinematic successes, one might wonder why I was left rather empty by the end of the film. It was one more movie/story about a man who is a genius, yet who treats his family (especially his wife) rather poorly, but she suffers through that because she still loves him, no matter what (and, yes, he still loves her, too). I understand the historical truth of this story, especially in the twentieth century, but there have to be other stories worth telling or, at least, a more interesting way of telling this story. Felicia seems to be both muse (at least early in the film) and support system (she understands how complex Lenny is, even to her own detriment), even giving up her acting career to take care of the family.
As the title of the film implies, it is masterfully made. I would be hard-pressed to criticize it as a movie in and of itself. I only wish all of that skill and talent would be put to use telling a story that we haven’t heard before.