A MOVIE REVIEW: "LOVE AND MERCY"

The Brian Wilson story has been holding it’s breath....waiting to be told; no shortage of plot lines, material, characters, villains, (or music) in this passion play. Brian was a genius, and it appears as though he had no help along his way to greatness.

Brian’s story starts with an astonishingly cruel and abusive father. Regular physical beatings were the standard...so much so that Brian was left partially deaf in one ear. His mother did little to abate the suffering...being an alcoholic herself. There were many more villains than heroes in Brian’s story. His was a story of exploitation from the beginning. His band member brothers were portrayed as almost cartoonish-ly passive and opportunistic. Beach Boy front man and cousin, Mike Love, was always trying to fight Brian’s creative development and freedom. Love wanted Brian to curtail his more avant garde songwriting and production and stick with the formula that was making them rich and relevant. Brian wanted to rise to a new level of creativity in response to the Beatles just released album ”Rubber Soul”. He had to swim upstream, often breathless, against his meddling and degrading father, cousin Mike, and even the initial apprehensions of the ”Wrecking Crew” musicians in the studio.

Mike Love, as Beach Boy front man, came out of this movie as someone who wasn’t sensitive to Brian’s genius, nor was he sufficiently appreciative of the cousin without whom Mike would most likely never have been famous and rich. Mike was just another who exploited Brian.

None, though, was more exploitative than Brian’s court appointed psychotherapist, Dr. Eugene Landy. After Brian had become non functional during the period following the release of ”Pet Sounds”, Landy was able to gain access to Brian and, through an arrangement with the court that granted him legal guardianship, effectively take total control of Brian’s finances and life. He kept Brian over-medicated and in a state of childlike dependence. Landy called all the shots and was even so brazen as to try and produce and co-write songs with Brian. He almost pulled it off.

In the end, Brian’s current wife, Melinda (Elizabeth Banks), was able to, with Carl Wilson’s help, stop the Landy madness, and bring Brian back to independence and sanity, and productivity. Like many true artists, Brian was too sensitive and emotionally delicate to rebound from the harshness and ridicule of his childhood; arguably the same characteristics that made him a genius.

Paul Dano’s performance as a pre-Landy Brian Wilson was laudable. John Cusack played Wilson for the years spent under Landy’s control.

In the end, as we all know, Brian Wilson’s Opus, ”Pet Sounds” gets delivered to raving critical acclaim. It was the inspiration for the Beatles follow up album, “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”. “Pet Sounds” is widely considered to be one of the greatest and innovative albums of all time. For perspective, “The Beatles” had a relative stable of writing and producing talent. John, Paul, and George were all exceptional and prolific songwriters in their own rights while Beatles producer George Martin brought an indispensable contribution to the musicality of the band that changed music forever. Brian Wilson was virtually all the Beach Boys had....he was ”butcher, baker, and candlestick maker”. He carried the band on his shoulders while the other Beach Boys rode the highway of hedonism.

Brian Wilson was a tortured genius...the movie makes this clear...but it is unknown, for sure, the role drugs played in retarding (or contributing to) his amazing song making skills. One thing is for sure.....Brian was innovative, and someone who thought outside of the boundaries....he was one of the anointed ones....and, like so many of the anointed, he had to fight through those who would keep him grounded in repetition and conformity.