Maestro (2023)

 

Genre: Romance/ Drama

Time: 2h 9mins

Director: Bradley Cooper

Quick Summary: This love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.

Mam, I'm sorry but what do you expect from marrying a clearly gay man.

I really wanted to like this film, the first half of it had me and then as soon as it went to the colour I lost interest. A lot of this feels very heavy-handed and doesn't know how to approach certain things that happened, so instead of touching gentler scenes that have a lot of subtly to them, it comes smashing through blaring something it wanted to get across. Honestly, it made for a really tiring experience. I really don't think this knew what to focus on either, as sometimes it would be his early life and his music, then it was his love life, then back to music, then for more than I thought should have been, focuses on the wife. The thing is though it only gives us the surface details of everything. We get absolutely no depth or detail to anything, then when we get the slightest glimmer of it. It gets interrupted.

The first half of this I really enjoyed and I was so invested in the story. It starts off in black and white and has more of a square aspect ratio to reflect the time this was first set in. The shots and transitions are so stunning and pleasing to watch during this segment. They're incredibly clean, almost flawless, and forward the story so well. It helped get invested and connected to the characters really well, too as there are so many close-ups that you can see the emotion full front. And you know what? We actually got a bit of depth.

Maybe this is just me but I found the guy to be insufferable. I did not like him. In fact, if I had met his guy I would have decked him. As well he always sounded like he had a cold and that really distracted me. For a film that is supposed to be about such a spellbinding man when it came to life and music, I really had no care for him. I felt incredibly sorry for the woman he was married to. I'm also surprised we barely got any scenes with him actually conducting. I absolutely have no idea why they chose to show all the least interesting parts of his life when he was known for his music. Why not actually show his involvement in those musicals. I wouldn't even know he wrote music if it hadn't been for a small moment at the very start of this film. 

I came out of this film knowing nothing more about the man than I originally did aside from he was bisexual, cheated a lot, and his wife died then he felt sad. Sure that sounds like it could be a lot and interesting but we had absolutely no depth to it. I actually have no clue what made the guy actually famous.

The other problem is this jumps forward in the timeline too quick at times, without explaining there was a time skip. So you're left guessing how far forward it is, and trying to figure out what pieces you are missing. It feels like so much of the story is left out as they constantly reference and talk about previous events that we haven't even seen and it became pretty confusing a lot of the time. 

Sure this is a very pretty film to look at, crisp 35mm aesthetically looking film, with stunning colours that are easy on the eye. But there is barely a story. I wouldn't recommend this for the full thing. Possibly the first half, but who wants to watch half a film. Carey Mulligan carried this film in my opinion, her lines hit the hardest and actually had emotion to her. 

5/10

"Felicia Montealegre: There's a saying in Chile about never standing under a bird that's full of shit. And I've just been living under that fucking bird for so long, it's actually become comedic."