MAESTRO chronicles the life of American composer Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) and his relationship with actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan). Spanning five decades, the film covers their meeting and marriage between 1940s to 1980s.
Surprisingly, director and star of the film, Bradley Cooper chose to focus on Bernstein’s personal life rather than his actual artistic process. A well crafted film with beautiful cinematography, art direction, and costuming, MAESTRO clearly is a work of passion from the very talented director and actor.
But despite the artistic eye and thoughtful care into nearly every visual aspect of MAESTRO, the story is, unfortunately, completely uninteresting. I would love to see how Leonard Bernstein came up with the music for West Side Story or the impact on his life from working on Peter Pan or being Oscar nominated for his score of ON THE WATERFRONT. But we don’t get that. Nor anything about his multiple Emmy and Tony wins. The only scene we get about Bernstein composing music is also the absolute best scene where Cooper as Bernstein is the “Maestro” as he conducts an entire piece to a full orchestra. It is easily the most moving and mesmerizing scene while simultaneously proving that the rest of the film is completely meaningless. As Cooper might say in his sophisticated Bernstein accent, “a complete bore.”
Rather than be frustrated for what wasn’t chosen to be in the film, my criticism will remain on what part of the story was chosen. According to the film, Leonard Bernstein was a bisexual man who had no problem being unfaithful to his wife, not always being present for his children, and being physically close with his music students. While this might all be true, MAESTRO appears to support the famous composer’s behavior as simply a byproduct of being creative and as he says, “loving people.” Whether I agree with this behavior or not (I do not), it is definitely not worth telling nor interesting in any facet.
The extremely talented Carey Mulligan has little to do other than be a wife who supports her husband regardless of how unfaithful he is to her. The reason is because she appreciates his artistry? I’m not sure. But I can say that her best scene is when Cooper isn’t on screen with her. All the females are fully supporting characters, who are only there to talk or point the spotlight onto Cooper. As their daughter, Maya Hawke has one terrific scene, but again it’s very limited, without much substance, and only there to shine more light on Cooper.
Every year there are a few movies that feel as though they are trying to win an award. And every so often, an Oscar front-runner comes around that seems to support reprehensible behavior. MAESTRO manages to hit on both sour notes. I like Bradley Cooper. He seems to have a real eye for directing, a talent at acting, and a winning personality for promoting. While an admirable effort, MAESTRO feels as though Cooper is trying way too hard to win an Oscar without any worthy substance.
