更新时间:2024-01-11

他他 • 音乐大师:[Film Review] Maestro (2023)

On paper, MAESTRO, Bradley Cooper’s second feature film with him sitting in the director’s chair, is a paradigm of Oscar bait, a biography about an illustrious public figure, American composer and conductor, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).

It sounds like the role he is destined to play, reportedly expending over six years to simulate Bernstein’ virtuosic conducting mannerism and flourishes, Cooper is also shored up by a transmogrified make-up and prosthetic artifice to physically morph into the maestro with an uncanny resemblance. Politicly, Cooper (who also co-writes the script) munificently allots the limelight to Felicia Montealegre (1922-1978), Bernstein’s wife, exquisitely played by Mulligan. Most of the time, MAESTRO is a two-hander, audience gets invested with their conjugal bliss and snags in equal measure, while the conductor’s notorious bisexuality recedes into a simmering undertow.

Shot first in a light blue-tinged monochromatic palette, the first 45 minutes of MAESTRO (save for the opening scene of Lenny in full geriatric makeup before an unseen interviewer) cruises through Lenny’s meteoric rising and intoxicating romance with Felicia - its faintly off-color ambience often takes audience out of reality into an illusive world (thinking of the faux-long take bringing Lenny from his bedroom to the auditorium in the beginning of his story, a showing-off ploy which also betrays its glaring artificiality). After that the film is saturated in retro-reflected color-ways, and DP Matthew Libatique’s alluring cinematography is indeed a treat for the eyes, and the film nails its period-look to a fare-thee-well, an Oscar for Best Make-up is a shoo-in.

So, the question is, what is not to like about MAESTRO, apart from the fact that we have seen such tailor-made, Oscar-soliciting projects ad nauseam? Many of which have succeeded, talking about male actors like Will Smith, Gary Oldman, Eddie Redmayne and Rami Malek, just in recent years. One certainly cannot blame Cooper for wearing his heart in his sleeve after being nominated for 9 Oscars, 4 of which for his acting, and still holds a goose egg. By my lights, the weak link is the script, whose preference of Lenny and Felicia’s tabloid matrimonial ups-and-downs over his extraordinary career takes the shine off Cooper’s passion project. Audience is only permitted with glimpses of his achievements and when all is said and done, who is Leonard Bernstein and what makes him a maestro, we are none the wiser.

That doesn’t mean Cooper gives a lousy performance, at least in those eyes of the uninitiated. His commitment and ardor can be incandescently felt, albeit his high-pitched voice sounds rather grating and one cannot help but see the self-conscious fervor in his eyes whenever a prolonged close-up crops up, it is both distracting and self-revealing of his determination to net that holy grail, which almost becomes endearing. The centerpiece of reenacting the iconic performance where Lenny conducts Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at Ely Cathedral, England is a revelation both in imitation and directing. Only side by side with Cate Blanchett’s wiggy, trenchant, sensationally butch tour de force in Todd Field’s TÁR (2022), Cooper’s effort unfortunately pales in comparison. Which prompts Yours Truly to ponder, perhaps, only those who are well-versed in Bernstein’s life and works can truly assess Cooper’s incarnation. But a general impression is that his Bernstein remains cagey and inscrutable, gregarious but without self disclosure. Perhaps, Cooper is too in awe of his subject to conduct a character’s self examination.

Conversely, Mulligan’s performance feels more organic and relatable, a long-suffered wife is a hackneyed role a priori, which she dives into with all her might. Felicia learns a hard lesson that she cannot have the cake and eat it too, and comes to terms with her privilege and entitlement (she is his “muse” and his love for her seems genuine) and the missing piece which Lenny can never give her (turning a blind eye on his dalliances with men). Mulligan is a dynamo of intensity and pathos, a magnificent force that elevates even the most tired scenario and thus becomes the heart and soul of the film, it is only natural when she bows out, MAESTRO also edges toward its coda.

For all the herculean endeavor and superb craft from its cast and crew, MAESTRO still looks like a missed opportunity, an overwrought biopic clutched in the thrall of its prestigious subject (treading between a hagiography and a scandalized truth-seeker, the outcome is a somewhat fuzzy figure), and incidentally, a testimonial that Cooper the director gets an upper hand over Cooper the actor, which might not be exactly what audience and Cooper himself have expected!

referential entries: Cooper’s A STAR IS BORN (2018, 7.7/10); Steven Soderbergh’s BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (2013, 7.1/10); Todd Field ’s TÁR (2022, 8.4/10).