Love & Mercy

Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions

            Few people know just how ridiculously cursed The Beach Boys were. Whether you’re looking at their histories of drug use, domestic abuse, drummer Dennis Wilson’s connection to the Manson murders, or the events of Brian Wilson’s life, the band undoubtedly had it rough. History has vindicated Wilson, and vilified people like Mike Love and Dr. Eugene Landy, but the truth hasn’t been exposed in an artistic effort like this before. Hopelessly strange and fascinatingly true, this is a film that music lovers need to see.

            This biopic stars Paul Dano and John Cusack as Brian Wilson, the founder, lead songwriter, co-lead vocalist, bassist, keyboardist, and producer of the legendary sixties band The Beach Boys. This story about Wilson’s genius creation of their last album Pet Sounds, and his twenty year struggle with mental illness, was pitched as a film as far back as 1988. Before seeing this film I knew very little about the band, other than what I had seen in a TV movie from ten years ago. While their decline, thanks to excess, is interesting in and of itself, this is a much more engrossing and heartbreaking story. Basically the man created one of the best albums of all time (which includes God Only Knows and Wouldn’t It Be Nice) fell into a schism of mental anguish, was taken advantage of for a couple of decades, and recovered himself through love and self-care.

            The director is legendary producer Bill Pohlad, who has gotten films like Wild, Brokeback Mountain, and The Tree of Life made. While the plot sometimes slows to a dullard pace, the technical achievement of this film cannot be denied. The sixties scenes are especially well shot and lend to a sense of nostalgia and confusion, as Wilson slowly deteriorates. As for the plot, of course blending two time periods, one in 1966 and the other in the mid-80s, is difficult, so I don’t hold it against Pohlad or the screenwriters that at times it feels sluggish. This may actually stem more from Cusack’s sometimes painfully wooden performance, which is still better than other films he has made lately. In sharp contrast Paul Dano is as multi-layered and impressively controlled as ever. Why he isn’t a bigger star completely baffles me, and the Hollywood Foreign Press agrees, as he was nominated for a Golden Globe for this film.

            If you’re unaware of the greatness that is Wilson, or the album Pet Sounds, I recommend you take a listen, because in all honesty I have been listening to it nonstop for two months, and it’s amazing. It may even change your life, full stop.