Maestro focuses on the relationship between conductor Leonard Bernstein and his actress wife, Felicia. And in the roles, Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan are phenomenal. Unfortunately, Cooper's direction and script undercut their performances.
First off, I want to say how much I love Mulligan. I have seen a lot of actors playing actors, but I've never before said, "hey, she's just like actresses who I'm friends with!" With her intensity and her mid-Atlantic accent, Mulligan perfectly captures that internalized theatricality that makes actors seem like they're performing while simultaneously just being themselves.
One of the strengths of the movie is that Leonard and Felicia seem like a very well-suited couple, with an intensity and a theatricality that creates a deep understanding.
The well acted, interesting characters give the movie a strong start, but soon the film loses itself. Cooper the director seems intent on keeping us away from the emotional center of the relationship. He either keeps the camera distant, as though we're watching a play, or zoomed in, as though we're watching an audition video. And to add to this, its sometimes unclear what a conversation is about, as characters talk about things without much grounding.
The overall effect is as though you are watching snippets of these people's lives through a window, or binoculars. The only moment in the second half of the film with any intimacy is Cooper's sweaty, weepy, bravura recreation of Bernstein's conducting in a church.
Why did Cooper create all this distance? My best guess is he saw Bergman's film and thought he'd like to do something like that but didn't understand why Bergman used that approach. Bergman's austere approach portrayed austere, intellectual, distanced people, so it made sense. The Bernsteins, on the other hand, were theatrical and intense and overwrought, and it would have made more directorial sense to lean into the emotion instead of muting it.
My second-best guess is he saw Woody Allen's Manhattan, which also uses distance with little intent beyond aesthetic pretensions, and he simply doesn't understand sophisticated storytelling.
Either way, Cooper ultimately squanders two great performances - one of them his.
First off, I want to say how much I love Mulligan. I have seen a lot of actors playing actors, but I've never before said, "hey, she's just like actresses who I'm friends with!" With her intensity and her mid-Atlantic accent, Mulligan perfectly captures that internalized theatricality that makes actors seem like they're performing while simultaneously just being themselves.
One of the strengths of the movie is that Leonard and Felicia seem like a very well-suited couple, with an intensity and a theatricality that creates a deep understanding.
The well acted, interesting characters give the movie a strong start, but soon the film loses itself. Cooper the director seems intent on keeping us away from the emotional center of the relationship. He either keeps the camera distant, as though we're watching a play, or zoomed in, as though we're watching an audition video. And to add to this, its sometimes unclear what a conversation is about, as characters talk about things without much grounding.
The overall effect is as though you are watching snippets of these people's lives through a window, or binoculars. The only moment in the second half of the film with any intimacy is Cooper's sweaty, weepy, bravura recreation of Bernstein's conducting in a church.
Why did Cooper create all this distance? My best guess is he saw Bergman's film and thought he'd like to do something like that but didn't understand why Bergman used that approach. Bergman's austere approach portrayed austere, intellectual, distanced people, so it made sense. The Bernsteins, on the other hand, were theatrical and intense and overwrought, and it would have made more directorial sense to lean into the emotion instead of muting it.
My second-best guess is he saw Woody Allen's Manhattan, which also uses distance with little intent beyond aesthetic pretensions, and he simply doesn't understand sophisticated storytelling.
Either way, Cooper ultimately squanders two great performances - one of them his.