I was intrigued by Better Man from the first trailer I saw. I knew nothing about British singer/bad boy Robbie Williams, on whom the film is based, but I liked the idea: Robbie narrates the film himself, about his life, but rather than act in it or pick a stand-in actor, the lead is portrayed by a monkey using CGI. In my opinion, a brilliant move, for a couple reasons. The most obvious is that I’m sure Robbie himself would say he felt like a trained monkey pushed in front of an audience, but also, if we (the viewer) see Robbie himself, or an actor portraying him, we tend to nitpick. Also, there’s a lot of conceptual/artsy scenes (the film is a musical after all) and by having a non-human character front and center, it adds to the magical feeling in those moments. It really works. Anyway, onto the movie…
It starts when Robert Williams is a little boy, idolizing his father, who in turn idolizes the great crooners of decades ago: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc. At a young age, his dad tells Robert that if he isn’t somebody, he’s nobody. When the dad has an opportunity to go on the road and perform, he jumps at it, abandoning Robert and his family. By age 15, Robert is willing to do anything to become a star, with that feeling that life is already passing him by and he has to do something to impress his father (and maybe get him to come back) and to have a life that means anything. He hears an advertisement on the radio for an audition for a new boy band, and while he does get in the band (Take That), he is relegated to backup singer/dancer and not given the chance to do any songwriting for the group. He stays with them for 5 years, and while he does become a star, the lack of songwriting credits means he is still far from rich, and partying is starting to take its toll. At the “ripe old age” of 21, Robbie (as he is called now) leaves the band to start a solo career.
As a solo artist, Robbie skyrockets to the top while sinking to the bottom, all at the very same time. As a singer, he is selling albums like crazy, his bad boy persona makes headlines, and he has a nice girlfriend (Nicole Appleton, member of the girl group All Saints), but his drug use is ratcheting up and he drinks alcohol like water. His performances on stage begin to suffer and his mental health is cracking under the pressure of pleasing larger and larger crowds, while also hallucinating and seeing past versions of himself in the audience, ridiculing him for being worthless. Robbie will have to hit rock bottom before he finally enters rehab to get control of his life.
This film was directed by Michael Gracey, the same guy who did The Greatest Showman, and it has that same feeling of a large spectacular show. Better Man is a musical too (something I didn’t know going in) with a very catchy soundtrack. Maybe not as “high brow” as another recent biopic, A Complete Unknown, but it is most definitely entertaining and has a high re-watchable factor. ★★★★
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