Bradley Cooper transforms into late composer Leonard Bernstein in his ambitious but flawed Netflix biopic. Here’s our Maestro review.
It was always going to be near-impossible for Bradley Cooper to follow his directorial debut, 2018’s A Star Is Born, with something as perfect and ambitious as that film. To his credit, Cooper certainly gives Maestro, a biopic about famed composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, his all, but the result is a frustrating and messy picture.
Cooper, in somewhat heavy prosthetics, portrays the composer from his early twenties to his late sixties. The film begins with a young Bernstein receiving the call that will change his life. He is to conduct the New York Philharmonic that day, without a rehearsal. Bernstein, naturally, nails it, and so begins his meteoric rise in music circles.
Bernstein also meets and swiftly marries Felicia Montealegre, a Costa Rican born actress, played with sensitivity by Carey Mulligan. Maestro is often more interested in their relationship, how Felicia’s own ambition was often overshadowed by her husband, than it is in a more traditional retelling of Bernstein’s life and career. It’s a bold move, but one that Cooper never quite pulls off. Maestro never manages to truly dig into these characters, to find some insight into them, which leaves Maestro feeling a little empty and devoid of purpose.
Yet, there are genuine moments of blistering brilliance in Maestro. Cooper frames and shoots Bernstein’s performances with a dizzying mixture of pure, frenetic energy and elegance. A later scene where Bernstein conducts at Ely Cathedral is a wonder to experience and Cooper, all sweaty and concentrated, completely disappears into the role. This is where the film is at its best, but moments like this are too far and few between.
Cooper, who has always been an unapologetically commercial actor, is a confident performer and even that large prosthetic nose won’t get in the way of his genuinely impressive talent. Curiously, Cooper also portrays Bernstein’s fluid sexuality with a refreshing ease, even if the film doesn’t quite have the courage to explore it fully. Bernstein bumps into two of his friends and their baby, to whom he coos “I’ve slept with both of your parents”.
Much has already been said about Cooper’s use of prosthetics to portray Lenny. The real Bernstein’s family have been supportive of his methods, but the prosthetics aren’t really the issue here. Watching Maestro, the question quickly becomes, can you make an honest biopic of anyone whose family is involved in the making of it? Maestro feels clinical in its exploration of Lenny’s sexuality and Cooper, both as a director and performer, comes across as flashy, but ultimately timid.
Cooper’s vision in A Star Is Born was clear, but it’s less so here. Cooper’s technical craft is still on display, but Maestro lacks the gut-punch power of A Star Is Born. Mulligan is the film’s heart and soul, with a nuanced, warm performance, but Cooper struggles to find the essence of not just Lenny himself, but the story he wants to tell. Is this a story of a man who loves people so much it’s hard for him to be alone, as he declares in the film? Or is this a story of a marriage that changes, transforms and adapts?
Ultimately, despite some truly astonishing scenes, Maestro proves to be a frustrating experience. It’s a film pulled in two directions; Bernstein’s career, and his tumultuous private life. Cooper’s Lenny remains an elusive if magnetic presence in the film, but Cooper the director can’t ever really close a distance that forms between the characters and the audience. The film also hints at some juicy themes that it never has time to explore, such as Lenny’s desire to make music for the masses.
Maestro seems to be made up of powerful, individual moments that never create a cohesive, compelling whole. Cooper effortlessly switches between black-and-white and colour imagery in different aspect ratios to portray Lenny and Felicia’s past and their present, and the director seems to have a masterful understanding of old-school, magical Hollywood framing. Unfortunately, the end result is a cold and unfocused biopic on a great composer.
Maestro will stream on Netflix from 20th December.
