In a wildly surreal twist on the classic music biopic formula, “Better Man” portrays British pop icon Robbie Williams as a snarling, scampering CGI chimpanzee. Yes, you read that right. Throughout this strikingly unconventional film, one of the UK’s most successful singers appears as a photorealistic simian avatar, voiced by Williams himself and motion-captured by actor Jonno Davies.
The audacious creative choice serves as a metaphor for Williams’ self-professed immaturity and arrested development, forever trapped at the tender age of 15 when he first rocketed to fame. Director Michael Gracey, best known for the hugely successful musical “The Greatest Showman,” takes an enormous gamble with this conceit. Does it pay off? Well, yes and no.
The Ape-Man Cometh
On a purely visceral level, there’s no denying the jaw-dropping spectacle of witnessing an eerily lifelike chimpanzee belting out Williams’ greatest hits, contorting his hairy face into the singer’s signature cheeky expressions. It’s a visual gimmick so outlandish, so utterly bonkers, that it commands attention through sheer audacity alone.
And yet, as the initial shock value wears off, one can’t help but question whether the monkey business proves more distracting than illuminating. For all its technical wizardry, the conceit begins to feel like a flashy gimmick that obscures the very real, very human story struggling to break through.
Aping Greatness
Beneath the digital fur lies a rather conventional rags-to-riches tale, charting Williams’ meteoric rise from boy band heartthrob to global solo superstar. We witness the young chimp’s fateful audition for the hit factory known as Take That, his rambunctious antics alienating bandmates, and his eventual expulsion and reinvention as a chart-topping phenomenon.
Along the way, “Better Man” delves into the darker undercurrents of Williams’ life: his troubled relationship with his feckless father (a heartbreaking Steve Pemberton), crippling insecurities fueled by bandmate rivalries, and spiraling addictions that threaten to derail his career. It’s raw, unflinching material, but the emotional gut-punch is often undercut by the distracting visual of, well, a singing chimpanzee.
“I’ve always felt like an overgrown child, like I never really evolved past that teenage stage when I first got famous. In my head, I’m still that insecure kid desperate for approval.”
– Robbie Williams
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Where “Better Man” truly excels is in its unflinching examination of the toxic jealousies and egomania that often fuel the entertainment industry. Williams’ motion-captured performance, though undeniably gimmicky, brilliantly conveys the bratty petulance of a man-child consumed by an all-consuming need for validation.
In a standout scene, the chimp Robbie obsessively scours review and gossips about his rivals’ successes, his face contorting with envious rage. It’s a primal, animalistic portrait of showbiz neuroses that, ironically, cuts closer to the bone than any number of self-serious biopics with human actors.
Monkey Business as Usual
Ultimately, for all its technical razzle-dazzle and high-concept risk-taking, “Better Man” can’t quite transcend the limitations of its central gimmick. The motion-capture monkey business, while intermittently effective as a metaphor for Williams’ stunted emotional growth, too often relegates the more nuanced aspects of his story to the margins.
- Groundbreaking visual effects breathe uncanny life into the simian Robbie
- Raw, unflinching look at the dark side of fame and fortune
- Conventional biopic beats struggle to break free of the distracting monkey metaphor
Still, there’s no denying the sheer chutzpah on display here. “Better Man” is a film that swings for the fences, even if it doesn’t quite hit a home run. For fans of Williams and experimental cinema alike, it’s a must-see oddity that, much like its subject, defiantly marches to the beat of its own drum. Or, in this case, its own chest-thumping roar.
