Maestro is the second feature film directed by Bradley Cooper. He stars as Leonard Bernstein, alongside a wonderful Carey Mulligan who plays Bernstein’s wife Felicia Montealegre. Though Cooper starred, directed, and co-wrote (with Josh Singer) Maestro, Carey Mulligan is the film’s centerpiece. Several biopics in 2023, namely Priscilla and Napoleon, have focused intently on a relationship rather than the achievements of the main characters. This serves Maestro and Carey Mulligan well as she gives an incredible performance, moving throughout the decades from a spry young actress to a brittle aging woman. Cooper matches her brilliance by playing an energetic Bernstein who shows his love for his wife but also explores the sexuality of the composer who had many exploits with other men during and after his marriage.
Matthew Libatique is Maestro’s cinematographer, and his work is nothing short of amazing. The film is shot and staged beautifully which entrances the viewer, engaging them in the scenes and the life of Lenny. The first third is a shot brilliantly in black and white, although it is quite entrancing it also may provide a barrier for some viewers. During this portion, it focuses on Bernstein meeting his wife and his rise to stardom. The edits are cut quickly and the music, which is Bernstein’s own, provides a surrealist quality to the movie. As we move throughout the story, it is evident the focus is not on Bernstein but on his relationship with his wife. It seems that Cooper is trying to push the notion that the main character is Felicia. It details how she responds to being the woman behind someone as charismatic, popular, and powerful as Lenny. During the second half of the movie, this becomes much more effective as it illustrates the difficulty of being ill and how it can bring loved ones closer together.
Maestro contains many spine-tingling moments, one in particular is Bernstein’s direction of Mahler’s second Symphony inside a London church. This is Cooper at his brilliant best, he has said recently that he spent 6 years learning to conduct for the film and this scene makes all of that worthwhile. Maestro is a movie of moments, and that moment is up there as one of the best of the year.
Despite the wonderful moments throughout, the film is missing a cohesiveness to tie it all together. Leaving the viewer with the desire for more: more information about Bernstein, more musical scenes, and more intimate scenes showing the struggles of Lenny’s career. Maestro inevitably draws comparisons to Todd Field’s 2022 film Tar which is about a fictional conductor who studied under Leonard Bernstein. Although the films explore different things, Tar feels like a much more personal film that requires more introspection and thought after viewing. Maestro is ultimately enjoyable but fails to show the audience what Bernstein meant to pop culture and how he lived beyond Felicia’s perspective. This could be an attempt from Cooper to hide the narcissism of directing, starring, and producing a film called Maestro but the best moments were when Cooper was the focal point oozing the charisma that made Bernstein the star he once was.
3.5/5 Stars