Noah Haynes writesBetter Man: When a Gimmick Elevates a Movie

by Noah Haynes

If you’ve seen any biopic, you can probably predict every emotional beat of Better Man. 

It’s the newest music biopic to hit theaters (competing with the Bob Dylan film, A Complete Unknown) and depicts the life and career of British pop star Robbie Williams.

Rising to fame in the mid-'90s, Williams first saw success in the U.S. as part of the boy band Take That, whose song “Back For Good” hit #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100. He would go on to have a mildly successful solo career with charting songs “Angels” and “Millennium” but remained most popular (and extremely popular) in his home country of Britain.

It doesn’t actually matter too much whether you know Robbie Williams or not, though. I had never heard a note of music by the guy and found the story very approachable to a newcomer. 

Plus, well, it wasn’t hard to track the plot when it fell into the familiar, tired story beats that we’ve seen a hundred times in other career biopics. (“Oh, he’s falling into a drug addiction and estranging his wife? Gotchaaa…”) 

Nevertheless, despite my criticism of the plot, this is actually a pretty fun movie. Before going too much further, however, we have to address the elephant in the room—that is, the monkey. 

In all the promotional material, and the movie itself, Williams is portrayed as an anthropomorphic, CGI chimp. He walks, he talks, but he is a monkey—though it’s played as normal in the movie. 

Speaking on the strange decision, director Michael Gracey (of The Greatest Showman fame) told BBC "Quite often Rob will say, 'I'm just like a performing monkey' or 'I'm up the back like a performing monkey…It just sparked this idea of, we've got this chance to tell this story, not from the perspective of how we see Rob, but how he sees himself.” 

So, sure it’s a gimmick. Surprisingly though, I found it to be one that paid off quite well. Not only would the movie be much less interesting if it was played straight, the fact that there’s this crazy chimp on screen grabs your attention and holds it. It’s actually kind of a genius move to subtly communicate the charisma Williams brings to his live appearances. 

Plus, as director Michael Gracey dips into his musical tendencies and starts bending reality, it acts as a seamless transition to a place of heightened reality. It’s not hard to accept the presence of a one-take, three-minute-long musical dance number when you’ve already suspended disbelief with the main character. 

And thank goodness, because the musical aspects of this movie really shine. Apart from the previously-mentioned scene, the montage of Williams dancing with his future wife, Nicole Appleton, beautifully incorporates the love song “She’s The One” as the two dance together on a boat.

By divorcing itself from the requirement to show Williams performing every song in a realistic way—the film opens itself to a whole host of creative choices. It made me want to see more biopics as musicals.

It’s fun, it’s stylized, it’s goofy—sure the story is overplayed, but don’t let that get you down. Whether you know Robbie Williams or not, his life story is worth seeing, even if just to get a few new songs stuck in your head.