Review of Love & Mercy (2015) by Vince T — 14 Jul 2015

A well acted movie, but none of the actors look like who they're playing, except for the guy playing Mike Love. I'm also quite close to the backstory having been into the Beach Boys and the whole Pet Sounds/Smile drama since I was 17. As such, as a fan you form your own opinion of what transpired when and how things went down. I'm sure I'm not alone there. There are a lot of moments I felt were left out of the movie, especially lacking on Brian's childhood through to the 'rise'. It mostly focuses on his peak around Pet Sounds/Good Vibrations and then cuts out a lot of the really interesting story of Brian in the late 60's into the 70's. They could have gone really dramatic and dark, and highlighted he bearded obese drug-addled Brian of that time.

They could have delved a little more into the Smile sessions, we got one brief segment of the fire recordings where Brian is basically presented as a kind of mad man running about with his fireman hat when we all know from the session tapes his head was still together in the studio and everything he brought served a purpose, means to an end. Also lacking more on Murray's abuse and Brian's hangers on, influences in other areas (...) etc.

But as it is it's a well acted telling of a couple of aspects of Brian's story, and for what it is it's a well done movie, but as a Brian/Beach Boys fan, I had reservations all the same. And feels a missed opportunity owing to how rich Brian's story really is.