Time: 129 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Drug use & offensive language
Cast:
Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre
Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein
Director: Bradley Cooper

I knew that the Leonard Bernstein biopic titled Maestro was a big passion project and now awards contender from director and actor Bradley Cooper. Despite some positive critical and awards reception, I have heard some mixed feelings about the movie online. While I was skeptical about the movie, I went in with an open mind, and while I liked it more than I was expecting, it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be.

Maestro is a music biopic, and for once I can’t say that this is just a Wikipedia page turned into a movie. It doesn’t focus on Leonard Bernstein’s music and achievements as much as you think it would. It is largely focussed on the marriage between him and Felicia Montealegre. That said, the script needed a lot of work. I found it to be very sluggish and tiresome, and I found it difficult to be engaged with the story. The first hour is dreamlike in nature with lots of interesting choices, even a broadway dance number. However, it was aimless and didn’t seem to be going anywhere. The second hour is pretty standard biopic stuff, but at least it was a little more focused.

Maestro is possibly one of the more confusing attempts at a biopic, especially in terms of focus. I went into this as someone who only knew little about Leonard Bernstein, and I came out not having learned that much more about him. That’s a problem, especially with a movie that’s over 2 hours long. I didn’t get a sense of who Leonard Bernstein was and what drove him, I didn’t even know about what made him great. Bernstein’s bisexuality is definitely shown in the movie, but it’s shown briefly despite it being a notable element that should’ve had more attention on. Even the marriage and love story isn’t that great. I understand you can’t cover everything in Bernstein’s life, but it actually felt like this movie jumped over so many big events and developments, and major character moments happen offscreen. That’s not to say that there aren’t great moments, because there are. But by the end I was just wishing for more.

The acting mainly comes down to Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan as Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre respectively, both deliver good performances. The two of them have strong chemistry, which helps you get on board with the movie’s focus on them, even though the writing for them wasn’t the best. Between them, I would say that Mulligan comes off better since it doesn’t feel that she’s trying to do an impression as much.

Bradley Cooper proved himself a solid director in A Star is Born, and he delivers some good work in Maestro too. Matthew Libatique’s cinematography is gorgeous, definitely one of the best parts of the movie, and the editing is good. There are some inventive choices in the first half. After the second half though, much of the direction and style feels more on autopilot. There is a particularly well done scene in the second half in which Bernstein conducts an orchestra. The hair and makeup is interesting. One of the controversies leading up to the movie’s release was the fact that they gave Bradley Cooper a fake nose, specifically in the early black and white sections when Bernstein is younger. It was very unnecessary and is just distracting, especially when Cooper’s own nose is about as big as Bernstein’s back then. Outside of that though, the makeup and hair is pretty good, especially in the latter sections when the two leads are older. Bernstein’s existing music being used throughout was nice and added a lot here.

Maestro is very well made, visually stunning, and has good performances from Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan. However, it does feel disappointingly empty, lacking, and unengaging, despite the talent behind it. Whether he was driven by a genuine passion for Leonard Bernstein or a great desire for the Oscars, it’s clear that Cooper was really trying everything here. It’s just a shame that the end result is just fine.