Maestro (#494)


I have been traveling and I considered  myself very fortunate that the local theater was playing a film I was anxious to see and was not scheduled to play in my home town.  There has been a lot of hype about this one because it was about an icon in American music, Leonard Bernstein, and because it was written, directed and starred in by Bradley Cooper.  To put it bluntly and mildly, I was disappointed.  In my opinion, it was more about establishing Cooper as an icon than it was a depiction of the genius of the renowned composer/conductor Lenny.  I felt MAESTRO made the musical genius appear to be a fraudulent, insincere and flamboyant man rather than the one who was responsible for the beautiful West Side Story among many, many other remarkable accomplishments.  The start of his career comes when he is awakened by a telephone call informing him that a last minute problem required that he be the substitute conductor of the New York Philharmonic that day.  As he joyously scurries to get ready, the audience is able to recognize that the person sharing his bed is a man.  As his career begins to soar, he meets a beautiful and talented actress from Latin America, played wonderfully by Carey Mulligan, and they fall in love, marry snd have several children.  But he continues his relationships with men, sometimes blatantly, while continuing to tell his wife how much he loves her.  The film is well done, handsomely produced and filmed, the musical numbers, with one overly long and unnecessary segment, are beautiful and almost awesome, and Cooper does a credible job but may have been carried away at times, seeming bigger than life.  His makeup job is superb.  At just over two hours long, it is worth seeing, and many if not all of you might like it much better than I.  Critics (81%) and audiences (90%) gave it a thumbs up. 

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