Brian Wilson is the mastermind behind the Beach Boys and he is a bipolar genius. Love & Mercy — a new biopic — explores his life and legacy.
And while I have to say it’s an enjoyable movie, the film looks at his life through rose-colored glasses. By omitting his darkest days, the movie misses a lot of gravitas.
The heavy drug use. The weight gain. The reclusive behavior. His true diagnosis. All of this is overlooked in Love & Mercy.
However, the recording studio scenes are amazing to behold. The making of the Beach Boys’ masterpiece, Pet Sounds, is recreated on camera — organs, harpsichords, flutes, bicycle bells, French horns, theremins, et. al. All that plus the band’s signature vocal harmonies.
Seeing the backend of this ambitious project makes it all seem so surreal. Magical, even. It’s a music fan’s dream to be able to take a peek back into the past and witness a faithful reenactment of the meticulous work put into making Pet Sounds, an end product so epic and grandiose that it ranks as No. 2 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Actor Paul Dano — whom you’ve probably seen in Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, or 12 Years a Slave — plays the young Wilson in the ‘60s. His portrayal of Brian’s passion for the project is tangible and realistic, particularly in his depiction of a panic attack Brian experienced on an airplane in the ‘60s. I’ve experienced panic attacks in the past and it is just like this – can’t breathe, can’t sit still. What’s missing from the film is more incidents of mental illness. Save for one scene toward the end, Wilson is seen as happy-go-lucky throughout, when we now know that wasn’t the case.
Maybe it’s because the film doesn’t even cover Wilson’s turbulent 1970s after his dad died, a period in which he was a recluse and a drug addict, but Wilson’s heavy drug use – cocaine, amphetamines, LSD – is only touched upon briefly in the movie. In fact there are only two drug scenes – one in which he is seen smoking pot during the recording of Pet Sounds, and one in which he mentions being high on LSD. It’s almost like an afterthought — “Oh, we need to showcase Brian’s drug and alcohol use.”
Also, Wilson weighed in at 325 pounds in the early ‘80s, a period which is covered in the film. There is some weight gain referenced, but very little. The skinny and scrawny Wilson of yore is shown with a bit of a beer gut toward the end of the ‘60s, but he’s never portrayed as anything close to obese.
John Cusack’s performance as the older Wilson is nonchalant, letting Wilson’s eccentricity seem to fall by the wayside. He just doesn’t read mentally ill. Which is not to say that he should be screaming, and cowering in corners, but there is a nuanced eccentricity to those of us who are mentally ill that goes unarticulated here.
In the ‘80s, Wilson meets a beautiful Cadillac saleswoman, Melinda Ledbetter (played by Elizabeth Banks). The two spark an intense romance and she is ultimately the one who saves him from dictatorial “therapist” Eugene Landy (played expertly by Paul Giamatti).
Wilson’s travails in the world of psychiatry are heavily touched upon. There are several scenes in which we see him having auditory hallucinations, which were given far more realistic treatment than in some films. Whereas “hearing voices” is often shown as an imagined individual speaking to a character, Love & Mercy depicts it in a more truthful manner: a jumble of sounds and snippets of inner dialogue.
Quack therapist to the stars Landy becomes a domineering force in Wilson’s life in the Cusack scenes, misdiagnosing him as paranoid schizophrenic. We don’t see the ECT treatments or the high doses of lithium — those happened in the ‘70s. What we do see is Landy’s 24-hour “treatment” and controlling behavior. Copious amounts of psychotropic meds are administered to Wilson, eventually making a zombie out of him.
Wilson’s true diagnosis is bipolar disorder or, as Wilson prefers to call it, “manic depression” — a fact that isn’t even touched upon in the film. Only just before the end credits do we read that he was wrongfully diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and now is feeling healthier with a new diagnosis and medications. Bipolar or manic depression aren’t mentioned by name.
I recommend this film if you are a fan of Pet Sounds and would like to see the behind-the-scenes making of the album. That’s where this movie shines.
However, when it comes to Wilson’s mental health, the film falls short. The true life of a manic depressive is wrought with indomitable tears and over-the-top mania. But unfortunately, the film doesn’t go there. It’s just a series of half-truths, leaving us with a pale shadow of the true man who we now know had major manic episodes and severe depression.
