For the first 10 to 15 minutes of Maestro, I thought something big was coming to the Netflix catalog. Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) wakes up from a call, throws open the curtains and the film flies with him through rooms, hallways and straight into Carnegie Hall, where he has to fill in at short notice that evening. It is the possibly the most important appearance in Bernstein’s career, his break-through. Lead actor, director and co-writer Cooper casts the energy that unfolds in a life-changing moment onto the screen in a concentrated gesture.
Cooper did that before, in his directorial debut A Star Is Born (2018), which also premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Then Lady Gaga’s singer was brought onto the stage and a new star appeared in the firmament. Two hours later, Maestro left mainly disappointment.
Steven Spielberg is (sort of) to blame for everything
“You direct Maestro”, Steven Spielberg reportedly said to Bradley Cooper after seeing the above moment from A Star is Born. You can’t be angry with the master director (Spielberg is meant in this case) for this decision.
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Cooper, who found fame with The Hangover, hides considerable ambition beneath his Leading Man charm. For his directorial debut, he chose one of the iconic Hollywood stories. He followed in the footsteps of greats like George Cukor and William Wellman, who had conjured up veritable masterpieces from A Star is Born. He grabbed them for his second film Biography of one of the most important American musicians of the 20th century.
Leonard Bernstein, the acclaimed conductor, composer of West Side Story and TV music educator (including Lydia Tár) seizes the opportunity, gains national fame and falls in love with actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). Amber continued to engage in sexual relations with men throughout the marriage, while Felicia finds herself in her husband’s shadow over the years.
Carey Mulligan is crushed by the Maestro
The first infatuation produces the Maestro’s most exhilarating moments. Cooper and his team transform the life of the artist couple into a stage on which dialogues turn into musical dance numbers and spatial boundaries are blurred. It’s just a short hop from the living room to Broadway, and with Bradley Cooper’s eyes beaming with enthusiasm, it’s hard to turn down the invitation.
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As Bernstein and Montealegre’s marriage descends into crisis, Cooper’s visual playfulness flags. What begins with the panache of a Babylon or even Behind the Limelight will adjusted to a serious artist-relationship drama. Distant long shots and constricting interior design are now ready to visualize the growing rifts between the two lovers. That would be acceptable if the script gave the female protagonist a fraction of the attention given to the Maestro.
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The Netflix film suffers from Bradley Cooper
Carey Mulligan gets a few Oscar-clip worthy scenes, but Maestro only has eyes for his genius, Director and writer Bradley Cooper only has eyes for leading actor Bradley Cooper. Almost every dialogue circles back to the title hero at some point and the camera does the same as the script.
Nonetheless, insights into the inner workings of Cooper’s amber remain sparse. His relationships with men, or these men, remain in the blur of perfectly formed images. The music says little more about him. Maestro sees the creation of amber not as work, but as untroubled flow of ingenious energy.
Unlike in last year’s masterpiece Tár, you can hardly see How the genius drives his orchestras to their peak performance, how Bernstein works before he shines in front of an audience. This isn’t a must for a conductor biopic, but it is another dead end on the way to insight. Bradley Cooper and his co-writer Josh Singer write Bernstein like a man born ready. It’s respectful, but also terribly boring.
Maestro will be released on Netflix on December 20, 2023.