Love & Mercy Review

All You Need Is Love...And Elizabeth Banks

Where exactly has John Cusack gone off to? After appearing in the highest grossing movie of his career in 2009 with the blockbuster 2012, the actor has become rare to find in a major feature film. Since the start of this decade, he's only starred in two movies that made it to wide release (Hot Tub Time Machine and The Raven) and has spent his time appearing in direct-to-DVD action films and thrillers. A pity, since Love & Mercy shows the guy still has chops and deserves better than what he's worked with recently.

Cusacks role in this specific motion picture is that of Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson, a man whose life has been consumed by schizophrenia, with his only constant ally being Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti) until he runs into Melinda (Elizabeth Banks) at a car dealership. The film intercuts this storyline with numerous flashbacks to Brians days as a young man in the Beach Boys, which are the portions of the plot where he's played by Paul Dano, in a rare leading man turn for the actor.

Segments of Love & Mercy devoted to an older Brian and his romance with Melinda are where the movie really excels, with Cusack depicting the quirkier traits of the aging singers personality without coming across as over-the-top or overly showy. He bounces off of Banks extremely well, and boy howdy, is it nice to see this very talented actress get a role with some sort of substance to it. The progression of the duos relationship is handled with precision and craft by Cusack and Banks, while director Bill Pohlad manages to create real emotional heft with even the simplest visual set-ups (look no further than a moment where Brian discusses his troubled childhood to Melinda, with the camera solely focused on the face of Melinda as she comes to terms with what she's hearing).

The other sequences dealing with a younger version of the main character are more problematic, mainly for how they indulge in some of hackneyed characters and story contrivances. Like Cusack, Dano has a knack for conveying Brians inner turmoil in a compelling manner, but whereas the older version of this personality gets to bounce off more fully fleshed out characters, Danos turn as Brian has more cliche individuals to interact with. There's really no depth given to his bandmates or wife, who become integral parts of the story whenever Dano saunters into the film. As one can imagine, this makes several of the scenes focusing on young Brian plodding, making one eager to return to the later time period where more interesting storytelling occurs.

Truth be told, those flashback sequences struck me, personally, as almost coming from another movie, especially since there's a notable lack of story interaction that occurs for the young and older versions of Brian Wilson. Still, those segments of Love & Mercy don't detract from the stronger elements deriving from the scenes focusing on Brian as an older man. The acting works quite well, the directing is strong, and while even here the writing can become prickly, it is hard to not get swept up in the best moments of Brian Wilsons ballad.