LOVE & MERCY
Starring John Cusack, Paul Dano
Directed by Bill Pohlad
The public isn't particularly eager to see pop stars change. And, more often than not, music icons are content to comply with these wishes, practically encasing themselves in ember in order to retain the characteristics that first endeared them to the masses. To wit, Paul McCartney cuts the figure of a septuagenarian schoolboy, while Bruce Springsteen still takes to the stage as if showing up for his shift at the steelyard.
A notable exception is Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson. Isolation, substance abuse and struggles with mental illness stripped him of his cherubic air and similarly lent his sunshine-guided melodies haunted undertones. Given this transformation, having Wilson portrayed by two actors in this biopic seems an appropriate decision. The note-perfect turns from Paul Dano and John Cusack ensure that it becomes an inspired one.
A fuller-of-face and warmer-of-spirit Dano plays Wilson at the height of his Pet Sounds powers in the mid-60s, teetering at the precipice of sanity while attempting to exorcise the maelstrom of ideas swirling inside his head. Just as director Bill Pohlad elicits restraint from his younger star – who previously has demonstrated that the slightest provocation can send him veering into histrionics – he commands a remarkably contained performance from Cusack. As an anesthetized Wilson adrift in the ‘80s while courting his future wife (Elizabeth Banks) and enduring the sadistic machinations of his tyrannical therapist (Paul Giamatti), Cusack offers a humane portrayal of a broken man attempting to mount the resolve to piece himself back together.
Abetted by these graceful performances, Love & Mercy illustrates that, despite conceiving of some of the most sublime melodies to ever surf the radio waves, a genuine, hard-won smile may’ve very well been Wilson’s greatest achievement.
