'Better Man' review: Robbie Williams comes undone as a chimpanzee on the road to stardom

Nordisk Film

Rule # 1: Don't let your ignorance about someone or something win. You might be in for a treat, for all you know, as the biographical musical drama Better Man crashes a party you didn't even know was happening. You see, this is about the life and career of British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams who we see as a CG chimpanzee (Jonno Davies provides the motion-capture performance while he and Williams himself voice the character as an adult, and Carter J. Murphy voices him as a child). We follow Robbie growing up in 1980s England with his mom Janet (Kate Mulvany), grandma Betty (Alison Steadman) and fairly absent dad Peter (Steve Pemberton), meeting manager Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman) who leads him to boyband Take That, then going solo, falling for fellow popstar Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), all while dealing with highs and lows of stardom.

To be honest, it is getting rather tedious to describe these movies in such bland ways, but on the surface, Better Man does follow that extremely predictable outline for biopics about musicians or artists in general. You get the rise-and-fall moments, a(n un)healthy dose of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, and plenty of damaged relationships between Robbie and people in his life. That's all very much there. But this along with some people's complete lack of knowledge about Williams is why your skills as a Don Draper imitator are needed because—and let me hear you scream with me—that's what the monkey is for. Fortunately, that is also one of the highlights of the film as the VFX (provided by Wētā FX) are quite remarkable, whether in regard to how they're used in the musical sequences or how you ultimately forget about the gimmick, for lack of a better word, because the details and expressions work both on an emotional and a story level.

Those musical sequences are also another highlight, bolstered by the combination of smart, nonlinear music choices and editing (including rearranged versions of Williams' hits like 'Feel', 'Rock DJ' and 'Angels'), several instances of outstanding choreography (overseen by Ashley Wallen), and director and co-writer Michael Gracey's kinetic direction of these scenes, which inspires so much energy that it's hard not to be impressed by all of this razzle-dazzle (shot with the same amount of energy by cinematographer Erik A. Wilson and finely dressed by costume designer Cappi Ireland).

You don't have to wait for long for the movie's perhaps most dazzling number, a showstopper which uses aforementioned 'Rock DJ' to get the Take That party going on the streets of London, but there's also another song-and-dance number featuring Robbie and Nicole, and a cover of 'She's The One', that is enchanting to watch as well, Banno making the best of her otherwise underserved role in said scene. Add the tear-jerker sequences featuring 'Feel' and 'Angels', and you could say that you have the whole package here.

Gracey along with his co-writers Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson do get lost in the monotony for long stretches of time as well as focusing a bit too much on frustratingly toothless, although apparently true to life, relationships like the one between Robbie and his dad. It's especially frustrating because the filmmakers get dangerously close to tapping into something real regarding self-image, mental health and suicidal ideations, a striking fantastical sequence set at Williams' concert in Knebworth being the emotional release for those things.

In fact, the movie is striking a specific chord pretty much every time that it begins to recontextualise movements and lyrics in Williams' songs with the personal drama playing out in the scenes. But it all does feel slightly incomplete because we're instead getting surface-level daddy issues thrown at us every 15 minutes or so. The cover of 'My Way' is a fitting final note because of the lyrics, but the drama around it is dreadful because it's about that father-son dynamic; hence you wish that the movie had ended 15 minutes prior with the titular track when it would've left you in a state of furore.

Aside from a few quibbles, this is nevertheless a bold, sometimes genuinely affecting and often extremely vibrant spectacle that does what Robbie Williams does best, which is pure entertainment that can also make you feel something from time to time—and there's a chimp. Why fight it when it can make you feel so nice?

Smileys: VFX, soundtrack, choreography, directing

Frowneys: Some issues with originality and ending

Caped crusader? Nah, we have the aped crusader now.

4.0/5

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