Frank Sinatra famously sang of New York, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere". Conversely, British pop star Robbie Williams has made it everywhere except New York. To be fair, he might get recognized if he walked down the streets of the Big Apple; he probably though will get more respectable nods than screaming fans ripping his clothes off. If he came to my hometown, he could walk the streets in complete anonymity. Better Man, the biopic on the former Take That member, is not a bad film. It's reflective of Williams and his public persona: brash, outrageous, simultaneously attention-seeking and withdrawing. It also fails to make the case as to why anyone between New York and California should care who Robbie Williams is.
Working-class boy Robert Williams yearns to be someone. In particular, he yearns to be like the singers his father Peter (Steve Pemberton) so admires and imitates like Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin and his beloved Sinatra. Pete, however, also loves performing and eventually leaves the family to pursue his dreams of being a singer and master of ceremonies. Robert, no academic, has the support of his mother Janet (Kate Mulvaney) and beloved grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman), but also appears headed for nowhere.
He also struggles with deep insecurity and feelings of unworthiness which he masks through an outwardly cocky, downright cheeky personality. His efforts to gain fame come to fruition when he wins a spot in a new boy band created by music impresario Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Harriman). The fifteen-year-old Williams now rechristened "Robbie" (Jonno Davies, with Williams narrating in voiceover), may not be the best singer in the quintet though arguably the best dancer. He is not the creative member of the group, as that role is filled by his frenemy Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance), who has been performing for decades, is a skilled songwriter but has no coordination.
Robbie Williams becomes a breakout star in Take That, his mix of brashness and pretty looks irresistible to fans and the press. He also continues to struggle with his feelings of low-to-no self-worth, which he compensates for with copious amounts of cocaine, booze and outrageous public antics. Eventually pushed out of Take That, he now must rebuild both his life and solo career. He gets a bit of both through his romance with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), a member of girl pop group All Saints. Despite his new love affair and a rising solo career, Williams is still tormented by immense self-doubt and increasing addictions. Will Robbie Williams find Angels to guide him back to a balance between being loved by millions and loving himself? Will he reconcile his past to his present and future?
Better Man opts to use some tropes of a biopic on a musician while adding one new quirk. You have the biographical film subject's musical catalog to chronicle certain points in his life. You have the rise, fall and redemption arc (a point that Williams himself makes in a trailer). You hit the high and low points in the performer's career.
You also have the central character appear as a CGI chimpanzee. I imagine that there are reasons for this decision. Williams, by his own admission in Better Man (the title coming from one of his songs) is undeveloped. There is a British expression of someone being a "cheeky monkey", which Williams' persona certainly fits. It also is something that would make Better Man stand out from other jukebox musical biopics such as Rocketman.
I also digress to wonder if such an outlandish element would please Williams' ego of standout out, of being so brash as to opt to make something in a jukebox musical biopic that would make it attention-grabbing.
I am not a fan of jukebox musical biopics where one takes the songs that the film's subject is about and using them to fit the narrative. I'm of the belief that songs should be written to fit the story rather than fit the songs into the story. The main difference between say a Rocketman and Better Man is that Elton John's songs are better known than Robbie Williams' songs. Say what you will about Rocketman using I'm Still Standing to sum up Sir Elton's life. At least that song is familiar to people outside the United Kingdom. How many people in America could sing along to She's the One?
How many people in America, moreover, would know who either Nicole Appleton or All Saints are? Oasis and the belligerent Gallagher Brothers who are Oasis' core, Liam (Leo Harvey-Elledge) and Noel (Chris Gun) would be more recognizable, but Nicole Appleton? Better Man wants to make the moment when she removes her mask at a party something that should make audiences gasp. I just was puzzled over why this seemingly random woman inspired Williams to sing this impassioned love song to her.
Same for when we meet the other members of Take That. To be fair, Williams' voiceover does give us at least their names and what he initially thought of them. However, like yet another musical biopic, the Take That members were so unimportant one did not even think they should have bothered. Just like both DJ Yella and MC Ren were pretty much irrelevant in Straight Outta Compton, the non-Gary Barlow members of Take That (Howard Donald, Mark Owen and Jason Orange) got a shout-out and save for the elaborate Rock DJ number were unimportant to things.
There are moments that did surprise me in Better Man. I was unaware that Take That was initially geared towards gay audiences. That does give Williams in his voiceover a chance to quip that he is not upset or distressed over stories that he has had sex with men. He's more upset that those stories say that he was lousy in bed. I was also surprised to see Williams' actual face appear once, when in seemingly archival footage of Take That merchandise, you see his pretty face on a group poster.
I will admit that rather than be moved or shocked when a coked-out-of-his-mind Williams took to the stage with the rest of Take That lying on the floor as they made their entrance, I actually started laughing. There was just something hilarious about this big monkey in an excessively large hat lying barely conscious on the floor as it rises to screaming thousand. I wondered why no one in the admittedly massive stadium audience seemed to notice that one of the performers looked as if he was dead.
Let me now touch on "the monkey thing". I did, eventually, get used to seeing Williams as a CGI chimp. It did not make it any more sensible, especially when he was a child. I thought that perhaps it would have been better if director/cowriter Michael Gracey (writing with Simon Gleason and Oliver Cole) had made the various negative images of Williams that Williams carries around into monkeys. By going all-in on "Robbie Williams is an ape man" deal, it ended up making his metaphorical battle with his past selves during his triumphant Knebworth concert look like something out of a Planet of the Apes film. It was not terrible, but it was odd.
Knebworth might capture why Better Man will not play well in the States. Williams seems obsessed with not just making it to Knebworth but being the main star at Knebworth. As he kept going on about "Knebworth", I kept asking, "Network? What is Network? Why is it so important that he be at Network?" Even for someone who is something of an Anglophile, "Knebworth" is something that I would not have heard of. Better Man, I think, is geared towards where his name is a marquee one, where Knebworth is a big thing. He might just as well have made it a goal of his to play the Neon Desert Music Festival.
Despite Williams' near-total anonymity in the United States, I did not dislike Better Man. There were moments that did move me. His beloved grandmother's descent into dementia and death just when Williams was about to hit Top of the Pops (the British equivalent to American Bandstand, which itself is now obscure to those past Gen X). The montage of him, post-rehab, going to others to make amends and be at peace with himself is also affecting.
That, however, cannot fully make up for some awful and cliched lines and situations. It might be true that his best friend Nate (Frazer Hatfield) found Williams in a demolished home, using a device to suck the fat off his body. It still looks odd. When Peter Williams berates his son for saying he did not care about him, he yells "I have always been there for you, Robbie". Williams, lying on a pool, looks at him with his monkey eyes and says, "You've always been there for Robbie. Were you ever there for Robert?" or words to that effect.
Better Man, perhaps, is Robbie Williams' newest efforts to do something that, for whatever reason or reasons, he has been unable to do: become as big a star in the United States as he is in the United Kingdom. The film is interesting, though not great. Robbie Williams, working-class hero from Stoke-on-Trent, has achieved great things through a combination of luck, determination, talent and cheek. Better Man is not a bad film so it might be worth looking over. Try as he might though, Robbie Williams will never be his generation's Frank Sinatra.
Born 1974 |
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