One of the favourite talking points of critics is how and whether someone is going to make the biopic format distinctive, in order to make it aesthetically tolerable. And we get plenty of chances to haul out these talking points each year. There are a dozen biopics that hit the zeitgeist annually, to say nothing of the many more independent releases vying for a much smaller audience share. What’s more, by far the most common type of biopic is the musician biopic. In 2024 alone we’ve gotten those for Bob Marley, Amy Winehouse and the Irish-language rap group Kneecap.
Well, how about if the musician in question is portrayed as a talking and singing ape? That’s the premise of the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, which a second’s snippet of the trailer makes abundantly clear. It’s from the Melburnian director of one of the bigger musical hits of the past decade, The Greatest Showman, and Michael Gracey’s film wants nothing more than to up his level of showmanship.
And it turns out, this one choice – embedded into what is a very standard biopic structure – is difference enough to make Better Man extremely watchable, and occasionally triumphant.
We’ve seen enough motion capture apes at the movies, plenty just this year in the last Planet of the Apes movie, that this creative decision alone is not technologically remarkable. So perhaps it’s the motion capture performance — mostly by Jonno Davies, some by Williams himself — we should be praising, as this ape is endlessly expressive. It’s not the demonstrative moments that really get your attention, though. It’s the subtleties, the small grimaces of disappointment, the wry laughter. We see this ape as a human – one of the most entertaining humans of the 21st century, if you are on board for the former boy band member’s worldwide success.
In a brief bit of prologue voiceover, Williams explains that this is how he sees himself – and then the fact of him being represented as a monkey in a world of humans is never again hinted at. That puts the conceit dangerously close to gimmick territory, considering that it is light on thematic resonance, but what a gimmick it is. If this were also some sort of parable about prejudice, well, that’s not something that would really resonate for a handsome pop singer who made himself an empire.
The film does follow Williams from his early years, when he sung in front of the telly with his da (Steve Pemberton), a would-be crooner who actually spends his time introducing other acts, who themselves only perform for 30 people in a bar. His own pitiable output notwithstanding, the gregarious drunk thinks that his son doesn’t have “it,” or more to the point, drills into his son the idea that if you don’t have “it,” you’re nothing. Kind of like him.
True enough, the elder Williams walks out on Robert’s mum and nan, and a bereft Robert goes about trying to prove his worth to the absent figure. Realising early on that he needs to own his moments of embarrassment and woo the crowd with the sheer force of his personality, he becomes Robbie, and the budding singer gets cast in a boy band that we know as Take That. Of course, that relationship goes sour as do all the relationships in a movie where our monkey protagonist is snorting cocaine and stepping out on his girlfriend (All Saints member Nicole Appleton, played by Raechelle Banno). Before long, Williams is forced out of the band and into a solo career. Which is probably the best thing that could have happened for the fame he enjoys today, though pushes him to the brink of driving away everyone he loves.
Better Man‘s distinctiveness does not come only from its singing monkey. It gets huge mileage from the songs themselves and the numbers that accompany them. Some of these stagings are up there with Wicked as some of the best of the year, particularly a jubilant and technically intricate dance-along to “Rock DJ,” a montage that shows the Take That members’ rise to fame and makes use of every corner of the soundstage at Docklands Studios in Melbourne. (Unbelievably, the majority of the film was shot there, with backgrounds that look like the real McCoy.) Of course the film has to hit the various feels, and “Angels” makes a moving accompaniment to a funeral scene that substitutes as a dirge for Williams’ downfall, to say nothing of what’s going on in the background of “She’s the One,” which depicts both the ascent and heartbreaking descent of his relationship with Appleton.
Better Man certainly doesn’t earn any distinction from its screenplay, but you really won’t care. The rock biopic is a sturdy format because it carries us through all the familiar beats, and if we are a fan of the musician to begin with, that’s all we need. There are a lot of Robbie Williams fans out there, but you don’t have to be one to like Better Man and get your toes tapping. Gracey showed us in The Greatest Showman that he knows how to stage a soaring spectacle, and Better Man avoids some of its predecessor’s more cringe moments. Unfortunately, the spectacle does lag a bit in the self-indulgent finale, which involves a cover of one of Frank Sinatra’s most divisive songs and a redemption moment for one character that rings hollow.
Even though there does not seem to be a thematic aspect to Williams’ ape disguise, except for any stumbled over in happenstance, there’s something kind of poignant about watching this character interact with a word of humans, as though he were one of them. The point, of course, is that he is – an extremely successful and popular human by any measure. If it’s anything, the ape costume is a way to explore fundamental trauma that marks any person as “less than,” and one of the more consistent motifs of the movie is how the only other apes Robbie sees are earlier versions of himself, who stare at him angrily from roaring crowds and give voice to his most profound self-doubts.
Depth, though, is not what you should be looking for from Better Man, since the spectacle rules the day. The depths it comes by accidentally, and those it gets through sheer proficiency of craft, are all the feels you’ll need. And if you’ve ever sung along with a Robbie Williams song in your day, all the better.
Better Man opens in cinemas Boxing Day.