Director, writer and actor Bradley Cooper’s new venture is Maestro, based on conductor Leonard Bernstein. The story starts in 1946 and follows Bernstein as a young man, when he meets his wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) at a party. We’re then brought into the ups and downs of their twenty five year marriage.
One thing to note before diving in is that it is not your average biopic. Usually the professional and personal life are explored and depicted for the audience to see. This take is different in that it focuses solely on Leonard and Felicia’s relationship. While said relationship was utterly romantic, I would have preferred there to be more of a balance.
Though we didn’t see much of Bernstein’s conductor side, the moments we did see were very well done. Cooper dedicated a lot of time to learning how to do the movements properly so that each scene was as authentic as possible. His hard work paid off as I found myself forgetting I was watching a movie during these sequences.
Where the film excels is in its performances. Cooper was outstanding as our protagonist and at times almost unrecognisable. I know the prosthetics got a lot of backlash in the beginning, but I think it added to making him so realistic. It was Mulligan, however, who stole the show. There was backlash against her casting as since she was not the correct ethnicity. That being said, she completely knocked it out of the park and is very deserving of her award nominations so far.
Unfortunately the rest of Maestro was not that interesting. I found the storyline to be quite drab in parts and not a lot happened. As a result, it was sometimes hard to pay attention and I lost interest somewhere in the middle. I still recommend giving it a go because the performances are incredible, but that was about it.
Rating: ♥️♥️♥️
Credits Rolling 