Film Review: Better Man

Sexuality/Nudity Objectionable

Violence Acceptable

Vulgarity Mature

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Objectionable

 I don’t know who thought that this movie was a good idea.

Better Man centers around real-life British pop star Robbie Williams.  He is an egotistical, vulgar, nasty, jerk.  And there is really nothing in the movie that makes you want to get to know him better.  For this reason, Robbie Williams is portrayed in this film as a CGI chimpanzee.  Doing this, the filmmakers are trying to use the borrowed innocence of this beast to cover Williams’ moral faults.  But this is like (to borrow an image from St. Augustine) clean, white snow covering a pile of manure.

The other way that the movie tries to get you to sympathize with Williams is by showing him how horrible his father was.  His father Peter (Steve Pemberton) was a cop who cared more for fame than his family.  He idolized the great crooners like Sinatra.  He abandoned his family to pursue a life in entertainment, but never really gets further than a warm-up act for small shows.  But Williams spends his entire life trying to fill the void left by his father.

And my response to this: boo-frickin’-hoo.

I know that sounds harsh, but I am talking about the character who is on display in this movie, not the person of Williams in reality.  But he has chosen to place himself in this dramatization for critical evaluation.  And as a narrative, the movie fails to give us a compelling reason to care.  His woundedness would garner sympathy if he was not intolerably horrid to every single person in his life.  I mentioned how in A Complete Unknown, the character of Bob Dylan has a similar problem.  But in that movie, Dylan is mysterious and interesting in a way that makes you want to know more.  He makes you believe there is a lot more beneath the surface.

With Williams, there is nothing beneath the surface.  The movie is narrated by Robbie and his thoughts are as deep as a dixie cup.  He is a creature of pure id, lacking compassion.  Yes, he has abandonment issues.  But never do these issues create in him something like empathy.  He is a black hole of emotional need and he never really gets better.   There is a subplot where he gets his girlfriend Nicole (Raechelle Banno) pregnant and she is pressured to have an abortion.  Normally, I would tap out completely here, but I appreciated the fact that the entire sequence was presented as dehumanizing and horrific.  But Robbie wastes almost no time throwing it back in his girlfriend's face.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Williams does eventually goes to rehab and turns his life around, but we don’t see a change in the fundamental problem.  He never learns that he doesn’t need fame or accolades as long as there is real love in his life.  It is the opposite message of the one you find in the movie Yesterday.  You may argue that this would not be in keeping with Robbie’s story, but that also is part of what prevents it from being a story worth telling.

Towards the end of the movie, someone tells him, “You are one of the gods now.”  This line falls completely flat for two reasons.  The first is that it shows that Robbie has not understood that the fame he’s seeking is ultimately empty and fleeting.  His world is too small and he never grows out of it.  The second reason this doesn’t work is that, honestly, I have never really heard of Robbie Williams before.  You cannot tell me that this man is on the same level as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin if he has had so little impact on culture that this movie is really the first time I’m hearing about him.

END SPOILERS

The performances are serviceable, but nothing spectacular.  I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the reasons for the CGI chimp was to cover any deficits in William’s acting skill.   Director Michael Gracey does a fairly decent job with the visuals.  Some of the musical numbers are interesting to watch.  The dance sequence with Robbie and Nicole is quite charming.

None of this can cover for the movie’s fundamental flaws.  It has beautiful sounds and is told with the fury of passion.

But it is a tale of sound and fury signifying nothing.