Better Man film review

If nothing else,Better Man (Paramount), the biopic of British pop star Robbie Williams, avoids the familiar formula of typical showbiz sagas. This is mainly because Williams voices himself as a CGI chimpanzee.

This initially startling concept — a stylized allegory — is presumably meant to suggest that audiences often view celebrities as little more than performing monkeys. It also implies that fans might see Williams — who rose from a working-class background to become the best-selling British solo artist of all time — as less evolved than others.

Once the story settles into its rhythm, however, director and co-writer Michael Gracey, who wrote the script with Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole, delivers a mostly enjoyable tale. Williams’ songs are enhanced by elaborate choreography, though the pain behind some of the lyrics is also touched upon.

The plot traces Williams’ experiences from 1982 to 2003. As an awkward youth in Stoke-on-Trent, the future headliner wants nothing more than to be a professional entertainer. He succinctly expresses his own ambitions with the simple phrase, “I don’t want to be a nobody.”

Williams' father, Peter (Steve Pemberton), is a small-time comic who performs in pubs and nurtures big dreams. Yet his presence in his son’s life is limited. Peter teaches Robbie how to sing in the big-band style of Frank Sinatra, but he abandons the family at the first sign of potential success and only occasionally reappears afterward. By contrast, Robbie's grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman) is his rock, even as his mother Janet (Kate Mulvany), who struggles after Peter's departure, has doubts about him.

Williams gets his first break when he passes an audition to join a newly formed boy band, Take That, managed by Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman). Martin-Smith, whom Williams compares to Willy Wonka, demands that young Robert become "Robbie." Though Williams resists the change at first, he eventually sees it as “something I could hide behind.”

Martin-Smith is controlling but adept. After a series of appearances in gay clubs, presumably to perfect the group's sexy stage moves, he unleashes Take That on hordes of screaming girls. Recordings and TV exposure follow.

Despite his popularity with live audiences, Robbie is eventually kicked out of the ensemble, largely due to the machinations of bandmate Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance), who sees him as a threat. The prevailing wisdom at the time is that boy bands are passé, and grunge is the latest trend.

Proving adaptable, Williams sets out on his own. However, his continued professional success is not mirrored by his personal life, which at one point is dominated by his troubled romance with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) of the girl group All Saints.

Robbie finds a songwriting partner in Guy Chambers (Tom Budge), who teaches him how to channel his troubles into ballads that are more soulful than his previous material. That’s fortunate, as his struggles ultimately include a devastating copyright addiction. Viewers may be left wondering why this crippling issue was allowed to go unaddressed for so long.

Better Man does not seek to shock or offend. Yet, its generally frank tone, along with a brief plot point involving a coerced abortion, suggests that even adults should approach this retrospective with caution.

The film contains scenes of drug and alcohol abuse, a brief aberrant sexual encounter, a glimpse of upper female nudity, an implied abortion, numerous profanities, and pervasive rough and crude language. The OSV News classification is L — limited adult audience, indicating that the film contains content that many adults might find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted, meaning viewers under 17 require an accompanying parent or adult guardian.




Better Man film review
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