Love & Mercy USA 2014 – 121min.

Movie Rating

Love & Mercy

Movie Rating: Geoffrey Crété

1960s Los Angeles. The Beach Boys are incredibly successful. Tortured singer/songwriter Brian Wilson decides not follow the band on tour, instead wanting to work on making the best album of all time. But a mental illness is slowly taking control over his life, threatening his marriage and the harmony within the bad. 20 years later, Wilson is under the care of Dr. Eugene Landy, who, under the cover of overseeing his treatment and general well-being, is overmedicating and terrorizing him. When Wilson falls in love with Melinda Ledbetter, he finds a way to save himself.

Although he has an undeniable flair for success as a producer, as evidenced by The Tree of Life, Brokeback Mountain and 12 Years a Slave, Bill Pohlad is clearly less adept in his directorial debut. Because his movie is split into two periods that are edited together but not emotionally tied, this biopic about the leader of the Beach Boys lacks energy, excitement and suspense, turning its many characters into caricatures – the beautiful blonde savior, the evil doctor, the transparent wife, the group members who are quasi interchangeable. Pohlad does demonstrate a certain ability in a few scenes, especially in sound design, but Love and Mercy seems unfinished and doesn’t live up to its potential, especially in its very ordinary ending.

29.06.2015

2

Your rating

Comments

You have to sign in to submit comments.

Login & Signup

More movie reviews

Coming Home

Le Havre

Le tout nouveau testament

Heidi