Bradley Cooper’s excellent film about Leonard Bernstein might more aptly be titled “Portrait of a Genius’s Marriage.” Although it does focus on the man and his music, its primary focus is on the man, his sexuality, and its impact on his marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre. Up until recently, the Bernstein children have been silent, or have denied, that their father was gay/bisexual, but have been totally supportive of the film, directed and co-scripted by Cooper, who plays Bernstein brilliantly. Carey Mulligan is equally good as Felicia. The supporting characters are less well drawn. Matt Bomer plays the first Bernstein boyfriend we meet, but he has little to do, Michael Urie plays Jerome Robbins, who is similarly a rather shadowy figure. I didn't realize that one of the characters is Aaron Copland, until I read a review after seeing the film last night. I did realize that two characters who sing "Carried Away" at a party represent Betty Comden and Adolph Green, because of how they looked, and I know the song is from On the Town. I assumed that another woman at that party, early in the film, was Phyllis Newman (Adolph's wife), because she looks so much like Phyllis Newman. She turns up again and again throughout the movie. My friend and I finally realized that she was Bernstein's sister Shirley, played by Sarah Silverman, who has an uncanny resemblance to Phyllis Newman.
But the film's focus is overwhelmingly on Lenny and Felicia. It's primarily chronological but does jump around a bit. Sometimes it's Lenny hair or Felicia's hairstyle that tell us we're in another era, in this fairly episodic movie. The dialogue goes fast, and is sometimes overlapping (Lenny was in many ways a typical New Yorker). I look forward to seeing the film again, on Netflix, so that I can turn on subtitles.
The film doesn't really give us much about Lenny's childhood, apart from one revealing story about his father. Maestro opens when Lenny is accidentally catapulted to fame, as a last-minute replacement for an ailing conductor at Carnegie Hall, with the first choice of replacement also unavailable. It does make clear that Lenny is an extremely social person and needs to be around people. There is a lot of smoking in the film.
The relationship with Felicia is portrayed as loving at first, later turbulent. She says early on (without him even bringing up the subject) that she understands that as artists they are above normal conventions, and is at first accepting of what she can see are his proclivities. She becomes less accepting as the film goes on, but it is clear that the love between them is strong. The onset of Felicia's illness and its progress, and Lenny's devotion to her during that time, are depicted sensitively.
Technically, I think the film is brilliant, utilizing different aspect ratios and, like Oppenheimer, both black-and-white and colour segments. The music, of which there is of course a lot, is glorious. Some of it is presented in snippets, other excerpts more substantially. Basically, although the film depicts the considerable needs of one man of genius, Lenny is portrayed as a caring and devoted husband and father. Maestro is a great film.
