海角大神

I鈥檝e often been curious why Bruce Springsteen never chose to act in a movie. Even Bob Dylan, perhaps the least emotive folk-rock stage performer of all time, showed up in a couple of films. Springsteen, by contrast, is nothing if not stirring onstage. His leather-jacketed prole persona carries Brando and Pacino vibes.

Instead, it鈥檚 been left to Jeremy Allen White to portray the Boss in 鈥淪pringsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,鈥� written and directed by Scott Cooper. Comparisons to 鈥淎 Complete Unknown,鈥� the Bob Dylan biopic from last year starring Timoth茅e Chalamet, are inevitable 鈥� if only because both films feature a facsimile of the real deal. But 鈥淎 Complete Unknown鈥� positioned Dylan at the center of a story about a cultural shift in the folk-rock cosmos. For all its faults, the film鈥檚 thematic vista was wide.

鈥淒eliver Me From Nowhere,鈥� drawn from Warren Zanes鈥� eponymous nonfiction book, is far less ambitious. It鈥檚 about how Springsteen, coming off the smash success of his 1980 album, 鈥淭he River,鈥� shunned his burgeoning stardom. Instead of capitalizing on the momentum from hits like 鈥淏orn To Run,鈥� he did a deep dive inward and sequestered himself inside a rented house near his old boyhood neighborhood in New Jersey. There, he recorded what became his next album, 鈥淣ebraska,鈥� in his bedroom on a four-track tape recorder.

The film makes abundantly clear that 鈥淣ebraska鈥� was Springsteen鈥檚 deeply personal foray into themes of abandonment and loss. The album, some of which is heard in snatches on the soundtrack, has a mellifluous monotony, as if Springsteen was mesmerized by his own loneliness. When the record label execs, hoping for another hit album, lean on Springsteen鈥檚 manager and close friend Jon Landau (a reined-in Jeremy Strong) to ditch the tracks, Team Springsteen, after some grousing, stands united. This may be the only movie ever made where the central conflict revolves around how to faithfully transfer an original cassette tape demo to vinyl.

Cooper wrote and directed a fine film in 2009 about a balladeer, 鈥淐razy Heart,鈥� starring an Oscar-winning Jeff Bridges. He understands Springsteen鈥檚 star-making milieu. But he has chosen to offer up a host of Psych 101 snippets to signal why the Springsteen of this movie is so morose. He lards his film with black-and-white flashbacks of young Bruce protecting his mother (Gaby Hoffmann) while warding off the violent bullying of his father (Stephen Graham).

Clips are repeatedly inserted from Terrence Malick鈥檚 鈥淏adlands,鈥� which Springsteen watched frequently on TV. That film鈥檚 violent anomie, dealing with the infamous 1958 killing spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, influenced the conception of 鈥淣ebraska.鈥� We鈥檙e also shown clips from the lyrical horror classic 鈥淣ight of the Hunter鈥� (1955) featuring Robert Mitchum as a preacher who terrorizes his newfound brood. To reinforce the obvious, we see clips of young Bruce watching the film with his dad.

Cooper also makes the dubious decision to play up the correspondence between Springsteen鈥檚 boyhood memories and his songs. A flashback to the boy being driven by his father to gaze upon a mansion on a hill becomes the basis for one of the cuts in 鈥淣ebraska鈥� 鈥� 鈥淢ansion on the Hill.鈥� And so on.

Springsteen鈥檚 girlfriend in the film, Faye Romano (a touching Odessa Young), is intended as a composite of all the women he couldn鈥檛 face up to during that fraught time in his life. A working-class single mom who isn鈥檛 cowed by his stardom, she demands more from him than this nowhere man is capable of giving.

The Springsteen of this movie is as closed off in private as he is gangbusters while performing. White does a creditable job of sounding and swiveling like Bruce in the film鈥檚 few concert scenes, but offstage he is a brooding lump. It is by no means unprecedented that the life of a great performer can be so bifurcated. But to make us begin to understand the anguish on display here, the movie needed more emotional layers and fewer obvious signposts. Didn鈥檛, for example, Springsteen privately enjoy even just a little bit of his power to whip audiences into a frenzy? The movie is about a living legend whose unofficial anthem is 鈥淏orn to Run,鈥� but we never really see what he鈥檚 running from. Or to.

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淪pringsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere鈥� is rated PG-13 for thematic material, some sexuality, strong language, and smoking.