5/5 stars
“The gift comes with burdens,” cries Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s stunning, symphonic biopic of the esteemed American conductor, composer and pianist.
With Bernstein played with genuine feeling by Cooper, those “burdens” are what drives this tale of the man behind such evergreen musicals as West Side Story and On the Town.
A father and a married man, Bernstein’s attraction to men is something he can’t – and won’t – deny at a time when rumours swirl around him. If he’s not careful, he’s going to die old and lonely, he’s told.
Tracing his life from 1943, when, as a young prodigy, he conducted the New York Philharmonic aged just 25, the film follows him across the years as the work and accolades accumulate. But Cooper and co-writer Josh Singer don’t dwell on cataloguing his achievements.
This is a deep dive into the “grand inner life”, as Bernstein calls it, and a candid portrait of his marriage to Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), mother to their two children, which gradually erodes because of his affair with musicals director Tommy Cothran (Gideon Glick).
Many scenes surprise, such as that of a blazing argument the Bernsteins have in their apartment, as a parade – including a giant Snoopy – glides past. Or the moment early on, where the camera whizzes from Bernstein in bed with a man, through backstage and across an empty auditorium. Or Felicia plunging fully clothed into a swimming pool, seen from on high, as angst sets in.
The early sequences, shot in black and white, truly capture the Golden Age of Hollywood feel, with crisp, note-perfect dialogue “so terribly, terribly” well delivered by Mulligan, in particular.
From vibrant party scenes and domestic tranquillity to snapshots of Bernstein teaching and conducting with such vigour and enterprise, the film truly captures the public and the private of this man and his family.
While there’s been a furore around the non-Jewish Cooper playing Bernstein and adopting a prosthetic nose, this should not distract from what is a sensational performance. Likewise, Mulligan is tremendous, taking her character on a tumultuous journey.
While Cooper’s film is traditional – it’s nowhere near as radical as Todd Field’s study of a conductor in crisis, TÁR – it’s a bravura tribute to the creativity and artistry. You don’t need to be a student of Bernstein or his work to find this richly rewarding.
Maestro will start streaming on Netflix on December 20.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
