No maestro has yet fallen from the sky.
In its sophomore feature, one can certainly acknowledge Bradley Cooper’s ambitions, and I respect many of the creative choices of this unconventional biopic, but neither Cooper’s prosthetic nose nor the structure want to work for me. I can well imagine that there will be a high abandonment rate on Netflix, but after all, the film was purchased by the streaming giant not for the entertainment factor, but for awards reasons.
It also leaves the bland aftertaste that Cooper, like so many of his peers, is just way too comfortable with staging himself. But to be fair, it’s already a big step in return to put his co-star ahead of himself on the call sheet, so he gets a free pass this time. But overall the direction feels forced, because you can tell that Bradley Cooper wants to try a lot of things, but not all of it works. That’s why I’d like to see a film of his where he sits exclusively in the director’s chair to really figure out where he is standing for me.
“Maestro” could’ve been a second “Tár”, because Leonard Bernstein was so influential that he deserves an eccentric, edgy and stirring film – as one scene in the final third actually manages to be. While the plot rumbles along most of the time, however, Cooper’s casting of Carey Mulligan painfully reminds us once again that she should have had an Oscar in her hands long ago.
That’s arguably this film’s greatest triumph – showing that both Bernstein’s wife and the actress behind her are the true targets of success.
