Love & Mercy

The biography of Beach Boy vocalist Brian Wilson focuses on two periods of his life. The first is the 1960s, when the California band has conquered hit lists and held the status of the American Beatles. Unsatisfied Wilson experimented with avant-garde sounds as well as drugs, which induced his paranoia. The second period is in the 1980s when Wilson, addled with pharmaceuticals and under the "care" of therapist-charlatan Gene Landy, met his second wife Melinda (Elizabeth Banks). Paul Dano plays the young Wilson, and achieves the highest level of mimicry to become like his character in appearance, manner of speaking and gesture. These fragments offer a beautifully stylized period piece as well as quasi-documentary scenes from the recording of Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys album hailed a masterpiece years after its recording. John Cusack plays the older Wilson and Paul Giamatti stars as the diabolical Landy. Landy becomes the most important character when Love & Mercy becomes a story of psychological dependency and refined manipulation of a man who couldn't handle his talent and success. Writing for „New York Magazine” David Edelstein found that director Bill Pohlad (working with frequent Wes Anderson cinematographer Robert Yeoman) is extraordinarily sensitive to the amorphous nature of Wilson's life and art.