Mood vibrations

Abstract

Of all the wild rides taken by a rock musician in the past half-century, Brian Wilson's was one of the most tragic. Hearthrob founder of the iconic 1960s American pop band the Beach Boys, Wilson's life fell apart in the space of 20 years. Strung out from years of drug use and estranged from his friends and family, he became a broken man by the 1980s, surrounded by strange companions trying to put him back together again. The new film Love & Mercy, directed by Bill Pohlad, explores Wilson's journey from international stardom into psychological despair and back again. In doing so, the movie offers a ray of hope that third acts do happen. The film begins at the end of the musician's second act. A middle-aged Wilson, played by John Cusack, wakes up one day, goes shopping, and meets Melinda Ledbetter, an attractive saleswoman with her own dark past. Played by an assured Elizabeth Banks, Melinda tries to sell him a Cadillac, they fall in love, and with her help, Wilson begins to put the pieces of his life back together again. This might seem a well-worn narrative—the fragile, flickering star and the grounded lover who rescues him. But this time there's a controlling psychotherapist in the middle—Eugene Landy, played by Paul Giamatti. Landy oversees who Wilson meets, what he eats, where he goes, and when he plays music. Played with a Machiavellian malevolence by Giamatti, Landy also administers therapy sessions that seem more like road rage at times than actual counselling. In one scene, he screams in Wilson's face for taking a bite of a burger. In another, we hear Landy has forbidden Wilson to have any contact with his daughters. Next Landy tries to crush Wilson's flowering affair, and later we learn that he has become Wilson's official legal guardian, managing his professional concerns as well as his medications. Rarely in film will one find a relationship in which ethical lines are so blurred—if not obliterated. Landy's father-like control over all aspects of Wilson's life hints at a psychologically damaged early childhood, and the film reveals a few scattered flashbacks that show Wilson's father to be controlling, aloof, and abusive. But Wilson's troubled life is only one strand of the film's narrative. Fans of Beach Boys will love this movie because half the film is devoted to an extended flashback of the 1960s when a younger Wilson, played with infectious energy by Paul Dano, is working in the studio on the Beach Boys' smash hit Good Vibrations and the breakthrough album Pet Sounds. Multi-talented Wilson was the main creative force behind the Beach Boys—a burden which, as we see in Love & Mercy, proves too much for him to bear psychologically. This earlier story is told in parallel with the narrative of Wilson's later years, and the viewer is drawn into both stories at once. It's a bold narrative device that creates great tension: there is the hope that the older Wilson will recover even as the younger Wilson barrels towards the edge. This parallel construction could easily have failed in the hands of a less skilled director than Pohlad, a veteran film-maker who produced the movies Brokeback Mountain and 12 Years a Slave. Perhaps less successful is the choice to cast two actors to play one person. Although this original approach conveys a sense of Wilson's fragmented life and relationships, it ultimately lacks dramatic unity. Of the two, Dano is more compelling than the listless Cusack, but he also has the easier role, portraying Wilson as the vibrant genius he was rather than the troubled man he became. One should not be tempted to see this as the definitive Brian Wilson story. It's more of a love story combined with an extended music video and dramatic tribute to Wilson's creative talent—a discography told as two single tracks rather than a whole album. If you approach it with that in mind, you won't be disappointed. Love & Mercy Directed by Bill Pohlad. Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, 2015. On general release http://www.loveandmercyfilm.com/ Love & Mercy Directed by Bill Pohlad. Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, 2015. On general release http://www.loveandmercyfilm.com/