Better Man

I’m vaguely familiar with Robbie Williams. I know three of his songs… but it turns out the third was actually a Ricky Martin song (oops). Angels and Rock DJ are solid works. I know he’s huge in England so I wasn’t surprised there was a biopic… I just didn’t think it’d rate a stateside theatrical release… or if Americans would get the whole bit about him being played by a CGI ape.

So, yeah, this is a kind of predictable musical biopic taking us from him as a young bloke up to an older bloke, though not sure how old since he remained a monkey. He aspired to stardom, got into a boy band, got booted, got into drugs and all that. And he’s a CGI chimp.

So gotta talk about that… the CGI chimp is a very good visual effect and was done because that’s how Williams claims to see himself. So there’s a hand-waving point to it… and it divorces the audience’s dissonance over seeing different actors playing the same guy. I personally like to think the producers were just taking the piss out of the financiers. Surprise! Every scene is gonna cost ten times as much to complete.

There are amazing moments in this flick, my favorite being the song ‘n dance number set to Rock DJ. There are other good musical bits though my affections are limited due to not knowing the songs. Except Sinatra’s My Way which weaves in and out of the movie.

On the other hand, there’s an awful lot they assume you know about Williams, his wife, and other folk around him. Probably a no-brainer for the Brits but a lot of it went over my head. And it didn’t help that Williams is a CGI ape which creates its own uncertainty over what’s real or what’s fantasy. For example, did he win an award and tell off the guy from Oasis? Pretty sure he never aped out on his audience… right?

So between the good musical numbers and inventive imagery, I’m giving the movie a pass. But there was a decent amount that didn’t hit with me or went over my head. also kind of got tired of him pissing and moaning about himself. Maybe that’d impact me more if I’d followed his career. Who knows.

Score: 75