Better Man: La Historia de Robbie Williams

"Better Man" is a surprising flick.

Not because of the monkey, the effect of that gimmick wears off pretty quickly. Although it is surprising how fast I became accustomed to the singing chimpanzee and how invested and heartened I got by the story.

But even though all of that is true, the main motive for my astoundment was how honest the movie was.

"Better Man" gives us a very raw look into Robbie Williams life, flaws and all. Actually, his flaws are what's under the spotlight. Even the choice of representing himself as an ape reflects that. At the beginning of the movie, Robbie's voice-over explains to us that we are about to see how he sees himself.

William's suffered from eating disorders, self-image problems and a multitude of mental health and drug related issues. "Better Man" doesn't shy away from the various factors that forged this hellish psychological landscape and offers us interesting insight into the life and mind of an artist that, on top of all that, also suffered from "fame".

Despite this, I found the movie to be an assault on the senses. It's too much all the time, with brief moments of rest inbetween. After the story picks momentum, it doesn't stop. Conversations mend with narration. Each event unravels into the next. An emotional moment turns into song and it never lets up. At 2 hours and 15 minutes runtime, it's a very tiring ordeal. Nonetheless, it's narratively cohesive and it makes sense to be like this. It even makes sense that the film offers us zero introspection. It's all a fitting portrayal of the person it aims to represent on-screen and consistent with its objective of entertaining audiences. It's just a shame it didn't reach one.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie but went with an open mind. I'm not a massive RW fan but like his music and was intrigued by the premise of Robbie Williams being portrayed as an ape in a film about his life story - er, excuse me?

As a result, you know this won't be a conventional biopic but you soon get used to Robbie the ape and the story moves along in fairly chronological order telling you key moments in his life. The movie is visually spectacular in places and the special effects are very good. The telling of the story gives added poignancy to some of his song lyrics and the music is used to good effect throughout (I left the cinema with some of the songs stuck in my head).

You don't have to be a big Robbie Williams fan to enjoy the film but if you don't like his music, or him as a person, this film is probably unlikely to win you over. The only criticisms I'd make is the amount of swearing in a movie that's rated 15 - it seemed a bit unnecessary and the story lags in a few places. Other than that, it's surprisingly good.

There's something about the use of the monkey to characterise Robbie Williams that makes this quite a visceral watch at times. The film tells the story of the fairly turbulent rise of this "Take That" singer from boyhood exponent of Gilbert and Sullivan to a man on the right end of an £80 millions record deal. His dad (Steve Pemberton) went off to a football match whilst he was a child and never came back, and that left him with his mum "Janet" (Kate Mulvany) and adoring nan (Alison Steadman) living a pretty much hand to mouth existence and leaving him with a pretty solid foundation for his later emotional and trust issues. Unless you've lived on the moon these last twenty years, then you'll know much of what happens next. What does make this stand out a little more is the fact that Williams himself is behind the project and is in no way afraid to portray himself as a complete ass. His drink, drugs, tantrums and generally spoilt brattishness are laid bare with little, if any, attempt to sanitise. In some ways it reminded me of the recent "Amy" biopic and came hot on the heels of a recent viewing of "Easter Parade" (1948) with both serving, for completely different reasons, to augment the thrust of this story of a person who attained great stardom, success and wealth - and ultimately ended up with addictions galore and few, real, friends amidst a sea of hangers-on and parasites all too eager to selfishly cash in on the fame of a lad who started aged just fifteen. Of course it's not exactly balanced, and I'm sure the gospel according to Robbie might not be quite how others see their own behaviour (or his) but there is an honesty to this that brings home just how ruthless the music business is and at just how fickle fame can be when those we idolise lose their lustre. It doesn't do it any harm that many of his solo songs work well through big screen audio with some classy string arrangements and powerful vocals to remind us that, unlike many of the largely forgotten "Take That" singles, his music - especially the stuff he made with Guy Chambers - is the stuff we will really long remember. It's not for the faint hearted, but still well worth a watch.

I think how you view this film might depend on whether you have a bit of empathy or familiarity towards Robbie Williams, or at least like his music. If you don't have that empathy, or familiarity with his tunes/background, then this is more a saga about what the music scene, some years ago (and maybe now?) can do to an individual.

On the other hand, you could also view this as one "oh dear, look at me and how hard I found fame, given my tough background" self indulgent mea culpa.

I have to say, though, I enjoyed it. I think I must be on the empathetic, like the music side of things.

The idea of having a CGI monkey is excellent, if Robbie, or a look alike (maybe it is one) had starred, it would have felt far more self indulgent. As it was, it was watchable, well written and directed.

The film was, however too long (by about 15-20 mins), the middle too repetitive, and the ending too schmalzy. Still, the music is good and, generally not overdone (I hate musicals).

Worth a watch.

Better Man (2024) is a movie I first heard about from Fantastic Fest back in September and I thought that this was the most ridiculous thing I've heard about all year long. Then I watched the movie and it kicked a lot of ass.

Positives for Better Man (2024): Now on paper, this is a movie that shouldn't have worked for me and somehow the filmmakers actually got me to care about the story of Robbie Williams as a CGI ape via Planet of the Apes. Yes, I know it sounds like I made that stuff up, but I swear that this is a real movie. There are moments where I cared about what was happening in the story. I also have to give props to the filmmakers for making this a fantasy musical because as wacky as the movie is, everything about it worked for me. And finally, this movie is a perfect example of how to take a ridiculous premise for any movie and actually get audiences to care about the story and the characters.

Overall, Better Man (2024) is one of the biggest surprise for in 2024 and I am so happy that I love this movie. This is one of the movies that I will be recommending to people the most.