Love and Mercy is a ‘warts and all’ dissection of celebrated singer/songwriter Brian Wilson’s struggle between his genius for finding that definitive sound and his inner demons pulling him ever closer to madness, writes Mark Foker.

Wilson was one of the founding members of the legendary American sixties pop group The Beach Boys and the biopic folloews the defining era of the group’s musical high, focusing on what many would consider as The Beach Boys greatest album, Pet Sounds.

The opening scene is a montage of The Beach Boys at the height of their fame showing them in cheesy videos, holding surfboards sitting on top of station wagons and generally larking about. In the background we hear a compellation of surfing tunes together with images of the boys touring on stage.



The scene suddenly shifts from the Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) in the sixties to Brian Wilson (John Cusack) in the mid-eighties during his infamous mental breakdown.

This flip between the two different decades occurs throughout the film.

In the sixties scenes, we are subjected to the gradually change of Wilson who tells the other band members that he prefers to stay home to work on the Pet Sounds album in the studio (for which he uses the ‘best of the best’ session musicians of that era), rather than perform on stage to a live audience.

What Wilson really craves is the love and respect of his abusive Father Murry (Bill Camp), who use to beat him and his brothers to make them work harder in lessons so that they could rise to musical perfection.

Fast forward again to the eighties, where the troubled and introverted Wilson, meets ex-model and salesperson Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) in a Cadillac  showroom.

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At this time of his life he was a becoming paranoid and was suffering from depression and anxiety all unbeknown to Melinda.

He was also under the influence and guardianship of the sociopathic Doctor Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti) who kept Wilson on heavy medication for no other reason but to keep him under his control while he looked after Wilson and his money.

This is a fascinating story that takes the audience through a number of emotions and opens up the true story of the tragic life of Brian Wilson and his relationship with the overbearing Doctor Landy and also his fortuitous meeting with Melinda who became his ultimate saviour.


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This isn’t a big budget movie but it does boast a terrific cast of big budget names who bring the whole thing to life, with each and everyone playing their role to the full.

Paul Dano was excellent in the classic road comedy Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and in this movie he does have a slight resemblance to Wilson and he sings quite well.

On the other hand, John Cusack looks nothing like Wilson or Dano which seems strange.

I remember seeing the early trailers and thinking ‘what terrible casting’ of Cusack against the Paul Dano interpretation.

As it turned out…it didn’t matter.

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Cusack puts in a brilliant and convincing performance of a man on the edge torn between his new-found love Melinda, who brings some normality and stability to his life and the overpowering Eugene Landy who he has become so dependent upon.

Elizabeth Banks is also superb as Melinda Ledbetter who could have easily walked away from the troubled Wilson with all his mental baggage and the ever dangerous and threatening Eugene.

Paul Giamatti once again shows why he is an actor in such demand and plays Landy with just the right amount of evil hidden in a Doctor Jekyll body.

This is one of those films that lingers in your mind long after you have left the cinema, which is always a good sign for me.

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Love and Mercy (12A) is out now.