Maestro

There are essentially two ways you can tackle a biographical picture. You can focus on a key moment in the life of the subject and gain some deep understanding of them as a person at that time, or you can attempt to cover a long period of time, often their whole life or career, and gloss over everything that enlightens audiences on the subject. Bradley Cooper’s passion project, Maestro, takes the latter route, and because of that, Leonard Bernstein, the subject of his film, is as enigmatic in the final frame as he was in the opening one. 

I refer to Maestro as Bradley Cooper’s passion project, but a more accurate description would be his vanity project. This is a film that seems designed from the ground up to be Oscar bait. Cooper, who is admittedly a huge fan of Bernstein’s music, has crafted a film designed to appeal to the Academy voters. He got a taste of Oscar glory with his directorial debut, A Star is Born, and is trying to capture that magic again. But in order to succeed as a film it needs to be compelling, enlightening, and have a solid point-of-view that people can resonate with. Maestro has none of that. Instead, it falls into a labored recreation of the man and his accomplishments without any of the true passion and drive that made him who he was. Compare what Bradley Cooper is doing as he is conducting to any number of videos freely available of Leonard doing the same thing, and you can see that while Bradley has the movements down perfectly, the spark in the eyes, the passion in the man himself, is just not there. 

To make matters worse, by covering so many decades of Bernstein’s life in a single film, so much important stuff is left out, including a lot of controversial aspects and events in his life that feel left out to avoid scandal. It’s disingenuous to hide these aspects of his life, and it forces the narrative to paint him in a different light than reality. A biographical film needs to show it as it is and let the audience draw their own opinions on the man. This film, instead, manipulates the true events so we don’t have the complete picture. Fans of Leonard Bernstein will know this stuff already and be frustrated by this portrayal. The casual viewer who may just know some of the music will find themselves being misled instead. 

Much criticism was leveled at this film back in 2023 when it was revealed that Bradley Cooper was using prosthetics to better look like Leonard Bernstein. This included a bigger nose that people were claiming was Jewface. It didn’t matter that the surviving family of Bernstein had no problems with it; the rest of the world, the Social Justice Warriors, were vocal in their dislike. To be fair, it was only noticeable early on, and I promptly forgot it was there. The makeup effect, while not subtle, is believable and does accurately depict the way Leonard Bernstein looked. Others, however, have portrayed famous figures without the need for prosthetics and did so effectively, such as Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon, who doesn’t even resemble the former president. The choice to modify Cooper’s face for the role was a deliberate one, and that backfired in the court of public opinion. 

Cooper is doing a credible job mimicking the famous composer, and you can tell just by watching him that he spent a lot of time learning the motions so that he could replicate them on camera. But mimicry is not the same as creating a character, and that is where Bradley Cooper has failed here. This is a good impersonation of the man, but it is shallow, lacking any real insight. It’s frustrating to watch because you can tell how much work went into it, but it falls short. This would have been a much better performance had more work gone into the script and less on the slavish impersonation.

Faring much better is Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre, Leonard’s wife. Carey has had an amazing career, showcasing just how much of a talent she really is. Here, she has the unenviable task of being the wife of a legend, standing beside her man as he stands before the world. The film does them both a disservice, though, by giving the impression that she was the reason behind his success, behind the music. Bradley Cooper undercuts the brilliance of Bernstein by doing this, giving the title of the film a bit of a sarcastic edge to it. We get this hammered home in the final shot as he is conducting an orchestra. The camera cuts away to Felicia, who turns away from us. The title of the film, Maestro, is then shown superimposed over the back of her head. It’s a bit insulting to Leonard Bernstein, and it’s disingenuous. 

This is not a terrible film but it is a boring one. There are far too many scenes where nothing but dialogue is happening. On top of that, even though Felicia is aware of it and is fine with it, Leonard is constantly cheating on her with other men, making him an unlikable character. While this is true to his character, a good filmmaker has to find a way to make us sympathetic to him, and that just doesn’t happen here. This film tries to cover too much ground, excise a lot of important details, and it does so without making much of it entertaining. Without that, and lacking any real insight into the subject at hand, this is just a movie that doesn’t live up to the hype and isn’t worth the time invested to sit through it.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning, and Macosko Krieger

Best Actor: Bradley Cooper

Best Actress: Carey Mulligan

Best Original Screenplay: Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer

Best Cinematography: Matthew Libatique

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgio, and Lori McCoy-Bell

Best Sound: Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich, and Dean Zupancic

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Release Date: November 22, 2023

Running Time: 129 Minutes

Rated R

Starring: Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper

Directed By: Bradley Cooper