What鈥檚 the best way to capture Leonard Bernstein?
Bradley Cooper stars as Leonard Bernstein in 鈥淢aestro.鈥� Cooper also directed and co-wrote the film, which includes Carey Mulligan in the role of Bernstein鈥檚 wife, Felicia Montealegre.
Jason McDonald/Netflix 漏 2023
The arrival of 鈥淢aestro,鈥� the new movie about Leonard Bernstein starring Bradley Cooper, prompts the perennial question: Is it possible to successfully dramatize the life of a great artist?
If you focus primarily on the life and not the art, the artist may get lost in the shuffle. If you attempt to link the events of that life with the art that issued from it, the results can be specious and simplistic. Focusing on the art while skimping on the life can be equally unsatisfactory. Also, how do you believably convey the throes of creation 鈥� particularly when it involves writing or painting or musical composition 鈥� without serving up a slew of hokey 鈥渁ha鈥� moments?
鈥淢aestro,鈥� which covers the life of the revered conductor-composer from the mid-1940s through the mid-1980s, falls heavily into the first two traps. Directed by Cooper, who also co-wrote the script with Josh Singer, the film serves up so much Sturm und Drang about the great man鈥檚 messed-up private life that it barely bothers to explore his creative genius.
Why We Wrote This
Dramatizing the life of a great artist can be fraught. The biopic 鈥淢aestro鈥� focuses on conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein鈥檚 personal life. But what of his art?
Clearly Cooper didn鈥檛 want to make a standard biopic. The narrative, shot in black-and-white until it switches to color halfway through, is often choppy and vertiginous. He scrupulously avoids hall-of-fame moments. The genesis of 鈥淲est Side Story,鈥� for example, Bernstein鈥檚 most famous credit, registers as little more than a blip on the screen.
The film鈥檚 center is instead occupied by Bernstein鈥檚 deeply loving and deeply troubled marriage to the Chilean American actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), whom he wed in 1951 and with whom he had three children before she died in 1978. (Bernstein lived another 12 years.)
What gives this union, at least potentially, its dramatic resonance is that聽Bernstein 鈥� whose flings and affairs in the film are all with men 鈥� was indiscreetly bisexual. Felicia was not deluding herself about Lenny (as practically everyone in the movie calls him). She tells him early on, 鈥淚 know exactly who you are,鈥� yet she wants to give the marriage a shot anyway.
鈥淢aestro鈥� frames the romance as a fraught but soulful bonding between two kindred spirits, and yet what comes across is more like a shared folly. This despite the fact that Mulligan鈥檚 poignant performance is the film鈥檚 main saving grace.
As the years rack up, we can see how Felicia鈥檚 gamble in marrying this man has not paid off. The soul-deep connection may be there, but not 鈥� until the very end, when she is dying 鈥� the love and kindness she craves.
From Cooper, whose prosthetic makeup in the early scenes is more distracting than convincing, we get mostly histrionics. The chain-smoking Lenny is all aquiver, on the podium and everywhere else.聽The film perpetuates the same fallacy as the overwrought 鈥淭ar,鈥� starring Cate Blanchett as a crazed-genius conductor. Bernstein鈥檚 inner and outer lives are made to seem all of a piece, as if this fusion is what made him a true virtuoso.聽It鈥檚 that old Hollywood clich茅: An artist is indistinguishable from his art, even though, in reality, his creations often have little or nothing to do with his private character. And because 鈥淢aestro,鈥� apart from indiscriminately pumping the soundtrack with his music, delves so perfunctorily into Bernstein鈥檚 artistry, even this clich茅 doesn鈥檛 get a full airing.聽
Will audiences who have never heard of Bernstein except via 鈥淲est Side Story鈥� be drawn to this movie?聽
There is so much more to him, both as a man and a musician, than this film cares to encompass.聽
Instead of watching 鈥淢aestro,鈥� I would recommend listening to Bernstein鈥檚 great orchestral recordings of Mahler, Sibelius, Beethoven, and so many others. Or his scores for 鈥淐andide,鈥� 鈥淥n the Town,鈥� 鈥淥n the Waterfront,鈥� or 鈥淭he Age of Anxiety.鈥� His 鈥淵oung People鈥檚 Concerts鈥� TV lectures, the finest introductions to classical music I know, are available on the internet and DVD. Therein lie the real riches.
Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淢aestro鈥� is rated R for聽some language and drug use. The film聽opens in select theaters Nov. 22, and will be available on Netflix Dec. 20.聽