‘Better Man’ review: Robbie Williams is…the basic showman

The British pop superstar gets a flashy, but routine musical biopic from the director of The Greatest Showman with Better Man.

During a 2013 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, actor Matt Smith wanted to ask pop superstar Robbie Williams some questions about singing. His response?

“Right, well…I’m not the best for that.”

This man has sold over 75 million albums worldwide based on being “not the best” at singing. This man drew over 375,000 people to Knebworth over three days on the basis of being “not the best” at singing. And now this man has a $110-million dollar Hollywood musical about his life of being “not the best” at singing. Pardon the language Mr. Williams but…you takin’ the piss?

I want it all.

Well there is one key factor to the story of Robbie Williams: ego. Looking at one of his music videos, or interviews, or even a picture of the man, and you can tell he loves the spotlight. Whether he was a supporting singer in Take That or strutting through his solo career, Williams sucked-up every second of attention he got. He may not have hit the smoothest notes on a mic or had music that defied genres, but he knew how to be a star. He leaned into it, chin out, begging you to take a swing at him.

But now…he wants us to look deeper? Better Man, the biopic directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) sees Williams start life as an energetic kid just trying to impress someone. That includes his father (Steve Pemberton), a drunk beat cop who’d rather charm a pub with hack jokes than nurture his son’s love of music and success. That love turns to drive as young Robbie charms his way into upstart boy band Take That, though he’s continuously stifled by stern management and substance abuse. Robbie soon goes solo with dreams of Sinatra-esque stardom. Yet he can’t shake a crippling sense of self-doubt (and therefore self-destruction) as he tries to find his own voice.

Oh, and he’s also depicted as a CGI monkey for the whole movie.

Monkeying around.

Don’t be fooled by the impressive effects done to make the digital ape as expressive and slick as it is. Credit to Jonno Davies for his noteworthy motion-capture work, bringing Williams’s exuberant personality to life in such a strange package. But again, don’t fall for the charm of the chimp: it’s a gimmick. Better Man follows a routine plot that soon overflows with goopy sentimentality and surprisingly few peppy musical numbers. While scenes with “Rock DJ” and “Let Me Entertain You” have great choreography and a sense of scale, most of the other songs are boring ballads sung by the CG primate whose pained pixels make the movie lose momentum. If this was just Davies (or any other actor) playing Williams in human form, the run-of-the-mill nature of Williams’s story would be much more obvious.

And then there’s Williams himself. Whatever reasons why Williams never made it big in America, a crucial one might be that he’s just not likable. There are plenty of celebrities who’ve scored major success with little to no charm or personality. With Williams, or at least the version in Better Man, he’s trying way too hard to get you to like him. Or hate him. Or get some kind of reaction towards him. Better Man wants you to know that Williams loves an audience, but doesn’t care what they think. He has a blast bouncing in front of a camera, because it distracts him from waves of self-loathing. Classic contradictions of a celebrity, but Better Man doesn’t offer a satisfying resolution to Williams’s journey. There’s no meaningful self-acceptance à la Elton John in Rocketman, or overcoming personal strife like Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. After all the family drama and professional struggle and “deep” self-reflection, pop star Robbie Williams comes to the conclusion that he’s…a pop star. That’s it. What a twist!

For your entertainment.

So Williams is a showman, that’s no secret. What is a pleasant surprise is how many more tricks are up the sleeve of The Greatest Showman director Gracey (who also co-wrote the script). Whereas his last movie tried to inject the older aesthetic of roadshow musicals with modern Hollywood gloss, the look and energy of Better Man fits much better with a modern movie musical. Gracey fills frames with as much pomp and circumstance possible for the livelier numbers (the “Rock DJ” scene is the film’s highlight). When it’s time for a ballad, Gracey and his effects team do exceptional work showing Williams’s inner turmoil around him when his songs lack that strong emotion. Even in scenes without singing, Gracey knows that Williams heard the world come alive for him when he saw success and obliges by turning his home street into a disco or being drowned by paparazzi that form the shape of a heart.

Better Man is not so much a musical, as it is a music video. It has a relentless pace and with its handheld-looking shooting style, the movie feels like it’s trying to keep up with itself for most of its 134-minute runtime. It’s chock-full of corny moments, sure, but the British cockiness every character walks around with keeps the audience from drowning in sentimentality. Does Williams deserve an ending as happy as Better Man gives him? Tough to say, but at least the journey leading up to the soft send-off has its highs. Compared to the overstuffed grandiose of Wicked, there’s a reassuring simplicity to Better Man.

The bottom line.

It would be a lot easier to root for Better Man if it weren’t a weird combination of basic and desperate. Alas, we have another routine music biopic ever so slightly primped up by a modern Hollywood gimmick. While seeing Robbie Williams literally become a circus animal on the big stage, it doesn’t make his story any more interesting or his persona any more likable. The visuals and energy of Better Man do a lot of the heavy lifting, and that’s a lesson future music biopics should take note of. What Williams should take note of is that he’s not as interesting as he thinks he is. The ego has landed, sure, but it’s not worthy of a full song and dance.

Better Man hits theaters everywhere January 10. You can watch the trailer here.

Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures. You can read more reviews by Jon Winkler here.