“Better Man” is a thoroughly unique musical biopic centered on British pop star Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams isn’t monkeying around in a biopic from “The Greatest Showman” director Michael Gracey.

If you grew up in Britain in the ‘90s, you either loved or hated Robbie Williams, the pop star who rose to fame in boy band Take That before going solo.

Elsewhere, especially in the U.S., your level of familiarity probably depends on how into music or British culture you are. But regardless of whether a viewer knows much about Willams, it’s safe to say Better Man will have them engaged from the word go.

Williams himself narrates this explosion of color and music that recounts his life from childhood through his struggles with fame and addiction. The sophomore film from director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) is a bold vision with varying degrees of success. It's far more exciting and inventive than many musical biopics, creating truly fantastical and cinematic musical numbers as opposed to merely diegetic moments recreating the subject's own performances. Ashley Wallen, who also choreographed Showman, brings their precise, high-energy style to the dancing (it shines most particularly in the boy band sequences), be it large group numbers or a more romantic waltz.

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Gracey, who started in music videos, has somewhat curtailed his tendency to cross-cut rapidly, instead giving us wider shots that actually allow us to see the choreography and intricate staging. (To be fair, his previous tendency for quick cuts has been a rampant problem in recent movie musicals, not a fault unique to him.)

But the movie makes a BIG choice that is both fascinating and not entirely successful. In many of their conversations, Gracey was struck by Williams 'description of himself as a monkey performing for others’ entertainment. To that end, Gracey depicts Williams as he sees himself — in simian form.

With the magic of WETA, actor Jonno Davies transforms into an ape-ified version of Williams (and Williams does much of his own speaking and singing). Its most effective result is the seamless way it allows a physical actor and biopic subject to bring the story to life. But it's incredibly distracting to buy into Williams as a Planet of the Apes-worthy creature amidst an entirely human cast. The concept and its audaciousness is admirable, but it doesn't entirely work. There’s flickers of genius in the way it evokes the interiority of something like Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, and perhaps it would’ve worked better if the monkey rendering were only used in musical numbers.

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This is no knock on Davies’ physical performance. It’s robust and energetic, and the magic of motion-capture allows every hint of emotion on his face to render on that of the monkey’s visage.

Williams bares all in the storytelling, exposing his infidelity as well as the depths of his addiction and self-loathing, refusing to curtail the uglier parts of the story out of a sense of self-preservation. It’s refreshingly honest for a musical biopic that has the involvement of its subject.

Through the musical form, Gracey creates a vibrant, electrified piece. Though it hits many familiar beats of a pop-star musical, it feels fresh and original because of the ways it uses its music. And though it doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of fame’s bruising effect on Willians, it never wallows in its darkness either. Perhaps that is credit to Williams' own brilliant sense of humor and tendency to use it as a defense mechanism, but it’s a rare thing that a biopic gets to be so demonstrably witty and bright without losing its teeth.

Better Man is beautifully emotional and engaging, and it’s an admirably big swing. But it would have a greater shot at making audiences go ape if the primate concept were used more judiciously. Grade: B

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