Release Date – 24th November 2023, Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 9 minutes, Director – Bradley Cooper
Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) looks back on his life, particularly his changing relationship with Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).
Perhaps one of the best sequences in Maestro is a sequence solely focusing on an orchestra being conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper). He passionately leads the group as their music echoes across the stone walls of a brightly lit church. At the end as the final note faded a composer sat next to me, having expressed his interest in the film for the musical angle to me beforehand, simply said ‘wow’. Afterwards, when mentioning that his response was my favourite thing about the film, he didn’t know he’d made the quiet exclamation. Further showing the power of the scene, particularly to him.
It’s a moment solely focused on the music, and indeed Bernstein’s relationship to it. The opening stages could almost be plucked straight from a musical as a young Bernstein joyously bounds from his home into a music hall – a huge smile across his face. It’s an energetic start, further encapsulated by Cooper’s performance, getting into the voice and character very early on. While some more stylised sequences may somewhat stick out amongst the more natural, talky tone of the rest of the film, there’s a good early push to show the spark of Bernstein’s rise to fame. “Music is the most important thing I can do” he explains later in the film.
Yet, the relationship that Cooper’s latest directorial effort is more concerned with is that with his wife, Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan, doing a very good ‘old timey Hollywood’ accent). Bernstein looks back on his life in an interview which opens the film, the early days of the couple’s romance shown in black and white. Over time the relationships is tested, particularly when it comes to the central figure delving into his sexuality. It’s a point you wish the film itself would delve into more, alongside a number of other points throughout, as it often skims the surface of what feel like key areas to return to a whistle-stop tour of the central marriage.
Perhaps why the second half works somewhat better as elements relating to Bernstein’s affair and sexuality are reeled in for a focus on the later years of the pairs relationship. You still wish that some more detail would be provided on other matters, the film occasionally feels as if it wants to discuss them more but doesn’t want to push its run-time or get distracted. Therefore, it generally tries its best to stay on its path of looking at Bernstein and Montealegre’s relationship over the years. Like Bernstein with his music you sometimes wish that the film would get a bit more lost in these moments, dig in to find more and bring out the emotion. Instead it avoids doing so, occasionally bringing to mind thoughts that perhaps this might work best for people with a pre-existing knowledge of Bernstein and his work – one beyond his mention in R.E.M.’s It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (and yes, that does get a brief, smile-inducing play).
While what’s present is likable and does a good job of engaging you in the story of a man who “leaves the bathroom door open for fear of being alone” – helped particularly by Cooper’s great central performance – you simply wish that it did that bit more. Instead it sometimes feels as if things are slightly unfocused instead of hesitant, especially in the first half before a more direct nature comes in for the final stages. The later years where Bernstein’s career seems to take a different form, and to some extent the film does as well – although still keeping the more natural dialogue and depictions – showcase the more personal drama for Cooper and Mulligan and its as their relationship becomes more tense, and potentially distant, the things feel most focused.
While starting off with energy and promise, especially thanks to a great performance from Bradley Cooper, Maestro is held back by the fact that it rarely delves into multiple key and interesting points about its central figure, bringing them up but never developing them.
Just A Little Bit Random 