Review of Love & Mercy (2015) by Spangle — 28 Jul 2015

This biography of Brian Wilson is quite good, largely thanks to the acting. As the young Brian Wilson, Paul Dano brilliantly portrays his slowly emerging madness, while as the older version, John Cusack is perfect as the sick and abused Wilson.

Paul Giammati and Elisabeth Banks are also very, very strong in this one. As with all music biographies, the music winds up being one of the highlights. Getting to see classic songs being made is a really cool experience, even if it is just a reenactment.

The way the old scenes of them in the studio are shot is really well done, as it looks like old footage you would see on a music documentary. This one is pretty well written, though I did not feel it was overly inventive with the music biography genre, as many reviews state it was.

While not entirely conventional, I did not think it differed too much from that formula, even though I really do enjoy the formula. As a whole, Love & Mercy is a good film that will likely get lost in the shuffle of 2015, which is too bad since Dano and Cusack deserve some kind of recognition for their performances.