Better Man

Grade: C+

Piece by Piece was a traditional pop star biopic (about Pharrell Williams), except for one minor detail: it was a LEGO movie. Now we have Better Man, about another Williams: Robbie. It’s a straightforward pop star biopic, except for one minor detail: Robbie Williams is a monkey. There’s no explanation or acknowledgement, not even from the other (all human) cast. You just have to go with it. This gimmick definitely makes it stick out in your head, plus it allows Williams to play himself, in voice, while actors portray the rest of the people in his life. I was, at best, peripherally familiar with Robbie Williams. Going from what I saw in Better Man, he is a narcissist egotist who abuses various substances and treats most everyone in his life pretty badly – but he never pretends he’s not any of those things. He’s the first to admit it.

Better Man mainly follows the cinematic template of the rise, fall, and resurgence of a musical artist. Williams started off in a 5-piece boy band, until they proceeded without him when he got more interested in the drinking and drugging. He’d pass out/black out during shows, and generally think he was too big for his britches.

His firing from the group is one of the more interesting scenes. The other guys frame it like they’re doing him a favor. “We were thinking we’d go out on this next tour as a four-piece. See how we do. And hey! You can focus on that solo career you keep talking about!” Williams says “you should do that,” and is on his merry way. He thinks very highly of himself, and freely says so. Self-awareness is important, but by the end, I’d had just about enough of this guy. Whether your hero is a LEGO character or an ape, you can only dress up a tedious biopic so much.

The one and only song I liked is one I can’t hum right now. I’d have to listen again. That being said, I loved every musical number, and I wanted more. Woefully, we don’t get enough. They either get cut short, or are few and far between. When they do happen and are allowed to continue to completion, it’s the kind of exciting lightning in a bottle that director Michael Gracey achieved with The Greatest Showman. I definitely thought of “This is Me,” “Rewrite the Stars” and the like, from a production standpoint, even if the songs aren’t as strong. Too often, though, it gets stifled to make way for surreal imagery with symbolism I couldn’t detect. I needed more music, and less monkeying around.

I give Better Man credit for unflinchingly, unapologetically sticking to its guns with the ending. It doesn’t devolve into the usual “here’s what happened to everyone” captions, nor does it show us the real-life people side-by-side with the actors. Williams is newly sober, but still an asshole. The last two spoken words are great, and par for the course based on what we’ve gotten. A very famous Frank Sinatra song bookends the movie. He did it his way, that’s for sure.

Grade: C+