Maestro
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| DIRECTED BY: Bradley Cooper STARRING: Bradley Cooper Carey Mulligan Matt Bomer Maya Hawke YEAR OF RELEASE: 2023 PREMISE: This love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. |
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.
THE POSITIVES:
The film is great from a technical standpoint. The cinematography, music, costumes, and set designs are all really good. I liked how the style of each of these aspects changed as we moved forward in time.
The dialogues of the film not only felt as if they were coming from a genuine place within the characters, but also felt very accurate to how people spoke in those respective time periods.
The makeup department did a fantastic job at gradually aging the characters up. The appearances of everyone in the film always looked very natural and never once came off as hokey.
And, everyone in the cast gave a good performance. Bradley Cooper and Carrey Mulligan in particular were outstanding.
Bradley Cooper did a fantastic job not only directing but also acting in the breathtakingly phenomenal one-take conducting scene that occurs near the end of the film.
I liked how the “courting” phase between Leonard and Felicia begins with stage and musical plays, foreshadowing their marriage eventually becoming one long performance.
Where I found the film disappointing was unfortunately its story and characters.
While it was good to see that the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the characters generally made sense, they sadly didn’t pack enough punch or heft for me to feel very connected to them or invested in their journeys. I couldn’t really care about the predicaments of the central characters and their relationships, and most of the viewing experience felt very cold, distant, and frankly boring.
For example, that one-take conducting scene that I mentioned earlier in my positives section, was great to marvel at only from a wonderful-exhibition-of-technical-prowess point of view. What I mean is, I could admire and appreciate the masterful music, the beautiful location, the smooth and steady camerawork, and a very energetic, emotionally charged performance from Cooper, but I couldn’t personally feel what his character was going through in that moment. I couldn’t share the same joy or ecstasy that Leonard Bernstein felt, and as a result, I felt emotionally disconnected to the whole scene.
I think a core reason for this disconnect is that the film introduces a lot of ideas and conflicts in its story, but always keeps them to a surface level and doesn’t really explore any of them in detail, or focus on how those conflicts were resolved.
To give a few examples of the many ideas and conflicts that the film introduces, we have —:
Leonard’s passion towards music and his depression that stems from not having made enough masterpieces,
Leonard’s fame (quite literally in one scene) overshadowing that of Felicia’s,
Felicia's depression arising from having to compromise and sacrifice her own happiness and dreams to make room for Leonard’s ambitions,
Leonard having to suppress the truth about his sexuality, especially in front of his daughter,
And, the rift in Leonard’s turbulent marriage that is caused (among other reasons) due to his infidelity.
Exploring all of the above ideas individually could’ve probably worked well in a miniseries, but cramming them together in a feature length film doesn’t really allow for any of these ideas to properly settle and simmer in the audience’s mind.
Due to this, Maestro feels like we are watching one giant montage of Leonard Bernstein’s life, rushing over the bullet points of his life’s story, instead of these bullet points connecting together and flowing properly into one cohesive, meaningful, and emotionally impactful symphony.
RATING-: 5/10
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