Knowing little about the Beach Boys music except their well known hits, I did hear about this "doctor" who had the lead singer in an isolating grip. Many years Brian Wilson, the lead singer of the popular sixties Beach Boys band, had gone off the rails. Losing it mentally, he was addicted to medicine and was isolated by his "doctor" from the outside world. It really is a heartbreaking story. And this movie "Love and Mercy" has really made an awesome tribute to the music Brian Wilson made and to the wonderful person he was."Love and Mercy" tells 2 stories at the same time. One story about the young Brian Wilson who rose to fame as a musician, and one story about the older, addicted and isolated Brian Wilson, who has gone off the rails. The combination of the 2 stories really mix very fluently. The whole movie is edited in a way a good beach boys song would sound: in total harmony. John Cusack, Paul Dano and Elizabeth Banks all act at the top of their talents.Paul Dano actually seems to sing the songs for real and his resemblance to Brian Wilson is stunning. In the end I am really impressed and in awe of this movie. What a wonderful tribute. Goosebumps all over, because the end is so emotionally uplifting. Special praise for the way the music was remixed, it sounded from another planet so spacious, intense and beautiful. Wow. I would like to add a lot of more comments but in the end it is better to just let yourself get submersed in the music. Dont forget to watch the end credits in which the real Brian Wilson makes an appearance with the song Love and Mercy. "That is all what you and your friends need tonight..." as sung by the wonderfully talented Brian Wilson.

The backwards/forwards style and pacing of this movie may put some viewers off but those who stay with it should be enthralled. To date, this is possibly one of the most accessible screen example of telling a story in dual time frames using two different performers. The life of popular musical genius Brian Wilson is quite harrowing - from a manipulative, abusive father to an opportunistic and equally abusive quack "Dr" Eugene Landy. Landy stood to gain a large (and unworthy) share of Brian's legacy - and if not for the eventual intervention of various close family and friends would have succeeded in his attempts to drug Wilson to oblivion.The studio session scenes are highly revealing for the way they demonstrate the parallels of genius and mental instability. They also highlight the respect session musicians held for the time they spent working with Wilson. It seems this venue is possibly where Glen Campbell was introduced to Wilson - before being selected to stand in for Brian during a major tour. Performances, direction, photography and music combine to convincingly tell this talented artists troubled journey up to the present. The use of live, present day, concert footage during the end credits round off a compelling movie experience. While it might mean more to Beach Boys/Wilson followers or those who lived through the early years, it offers equal benefits to any follower of modern musical development.

I met Brian Wilson several times. All four stars go to Paul Dano, who tries and does well as young Brian, but no one can suspend disbelief so far as to accept John Cusack, a great actor in the right situation, as Brian anybody. It's a ridiculous stretch to begin with. Brian himself was able to sit through this film, though how, I cannot imagine. Still, Brian dances to his own imagination, so I wouldn't presume to determine his impression of it. Nothing wrong with the film's values, only that the flip-flop age approach, Dano as young Brian, Cusack as older Brian, simply doesn't work, because even a fine actor like Cusack cannot achieve any believable resemblance to Wilson or his persona - he is just the wrong choice to pull off such a huge conceit. Best turn to "Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" (1995) and let the actual man do his job. Director Bill Pohlad is no slouch, but next time, perhaps a bit more looking before taking a leap the size of this one.

I've been listening to the Beach Boys for forty years, and I've read most of the books written about the band. LOVE & MERCY is a movie I'd dreamed of seeing for years, but it just didn't live up to my expectations. Paul Dano is superb as the young Brian Wilson, a pure soul in a dirty, greedy world who just wants to make music. The half of the film where he makes the album Pet Sounds, and the song "Good Vibrations," is certainly worth watching. But there's nothing said that isn't self evident. Brian is a genius. Mike is a selfish jerk. Dennis and Carl are dweebs. Father Murray is a monster. All these characters are about an inch deep. The movie doesn't have the conflicts needed for drama, because it's already clear who the hero (or victim) is, and what's going to happen. The only thing that saves the Sixties scenes is the purity and simplicity of Paul Dano's performance. He owns Brian Wilson and makes every scene soar, in and out of the recording studio. Unfortunately, in the Eighties section the older Brian Wilson is played by John Cusack. Cusack is wretchedly miscast and utterly at a loss with playing a character who was shy and fragile as a young man, and who is now practically paralyzed by drugs and mental disability. Cusack is often an effective actor, when he plays aggressive, strong-willed, Irish-American Midwestern bully-boy types, but he doesn't convey vulnerable, timid, or fragile emotions very well. His high speed chatter and ever-so-humble mumbling comes across as more of a creepy put on than a heartbreaking tragedy. The problem is aggravated by the fact that Elizabeth Banks effortlessly outshines him in every scene, combining spunk, glamour, sex appeal, and enormous heart in a completely believable character. There is zero sexual chemistry between these two characters. She's completely authentic while he's mannered, artificial, and grating.But beyond the poor performance of Cusack, LOVE & MERCY is sunk by its own ignorance of Brian Wilson's music. Mean old Murray sneers that "God Only Knows" sounds like a suicide note. So where is the Murray who "cried like a baby" (in Dennis Wilson's words) the first time he heard "Caroline, No?" I don't know about Murray, but something tells me the film makers never listened to "The Lonely Sea" on the SURFING USA album. Or "The Warmth of the Sun" on SHUT DOWN VOL. 2 Do your homework, people! The film makers don't care who Brian Wilson really was. They don't care that he was depressed from the beginning, even during his "fun" period.They just want an icon, in the most literal sense, an inanimate object or symbol for purity and victimization. It's also painfully clear that all the Dr. Landy scenes are told strictly from second wife Melinda's point of view. The "rescue" scenes come across as unintentionally funny (or unintentionally creepy) precisely because the storytelling is so one-sided. Melinda's desire to get control of Brian is so obvious that she ends up looking just as callous and hypocritical as Dr. Landy. Elizabeth Banks is just brilliant enough to make you put up with it, but after the movie is over you feel like you've been had. This is a very pretentious film, with a lot of "artistic" white noise meant to suggest the madness in Brian Wilson's head. There are also some bedroom shots where he sees his past and future self which are clearly a tribute to Stanley Kubrick's 2001. Yet oddly, as I watched the movie I kept thinking of another Kubrick film, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Because the way Brian Wilson keeps getting batted back and forth between Melinda and Dr. Landy really reminded me of Alex being "captured" by the state and then "rescued" by the radical conspirators. Except that when Kubrick told the story, he explored the ambiguities, and made the irony dark and chilling. LOVE & MERCY just sort of hopes you won't notice!