Film Review: Better Man

Better Man
Director: Michael Gracey
Sina Studios, Facing East Entertainment
In Theaters: 01.10

The musician biopic is like the secondary villain in an action movie from the late ‘80s or early ‘90s action movie — it should be dead by now, but it keeps popping up. It seems that half the point of these films is simply to watch and famous person impersonate another and maybe win an award for it, and on that level, Better Man has really “monkeyed” with the formula.

As the voice of singer Robbie Williams introduces Better Man, he explains that the film presents him as he sees himself: “less evolved than other people.” The character is seen as a CGI motion capture chimpanzee performed by Jonno Davies (Hunters) throughout the film (with Carter J.Murphy voicing him as a child). The story starts in the 1980s in Stoke-on-Trent, where eight-year-old Robert Williams discovers his love for music under the guidance of his lounge singer father, Peter Williams (Steve Pemberton, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy), until his parents separate. As a teenager, his ambition to become a singer leads him to audition for the boyband Take That, where he secures a spot and band manager Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herrimon, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) gives him the stage name “Robbie.” The band rises to fame, but creative clashes, ego and self-doubt- driven antics — as well as drug and alcohol abuse — drive create a rift, and Robbie leaves the group. Spiraling into addiction, he battles personal demons before a new partnership with songwriter Guy Chambers (Tom Budge, Judy & Punch, Larry Crowne) gives him a chance at a career comeback. If Robbie is truly going to be a success, however, he needs to get his act together off stage as well as on, and learn to be a better man.

Co-writer and director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) is a style over substance filmmaker, though Williams’ life was filled with enough substances that there’s plenty of drama, even if it hits all the standard beats of the genre. While the chimp gimmick is fun and brings some smart subtext about Williams’ struggle with duality and understanding himself, as well as often feeling like a trained animal performing to please others, this is still the same ‘destructive music star finds redemption and a second chance’ movie we’ve seen many times before, most recently in Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman. Like the latter, Better Man is a jukebox musical, which keeps it lively and entertaining. The relationship between Williams and his grandmother makes for the most raw and touching elements of the film, and though the estranged father and son reconciliation is predictable and, at times, just plain cheesy, it plays well and has a strong payoff. 

Davies is absolutely astonishing in both his motion capture and vocal performances, though Williams does the singing and takes over voicing himself in the film’s third act (and is easily the least believable actor playing the role). While the CGI isn’t always completely convincing, the most successful element of the film is that the unique approach actually manages to make it easier to get lost in the character rather than getting sidetracked by an impersonate, and Davies’ physicality connects little Robert and the older Robbie in a really wonderful way. Kate Mulvaney (The Great Gatsby) and Alison Steadman (Life is Sweet) are terrific as Janet and Betty, Robert’s mother and grandmother, respectively, but at times it feels like Herriman and Pemberton are competing with each other for the title of “campiest performances by a paper-thin caricature of a human playing opposite a far more convincing talking ape.” 

Better Man is a somewhat uneven mix of daring ideas and by-the-numbers filmmaking, but it comes together to do what it sets out to do. I’ll freely admit that my lack of patience with the endless parade of ‘descent into addiction’ movies made it feel more tedious to me than it might to others, and it’s an overall winner. While Better Man could certainly have been a better movie, it’s good enough to earn an opposable thumbs up from me. —Patrick Gibbs

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