“Love and Mercy,” the alarming biopic of Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson, reveals the toll that sudden fame can have on an individual, particularly one in the early stages of mental illness. Alternating between two timelines—the ‘60s, in which young Brian (Paul Dano), in the initial throes of fame, begins to crumble under the pressure of his success, and the ‘80s, where Brian (now played by John Cusack) is under the supervision and overmedication of corrupt psychiatrist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), who practices a bizarre technique of 24-hour “Marathon Therapy.”
If the ’60’s-set part of the story never offers anything particularly new to the equation, the scenes in the later era find their power in telling the story through the perspective of Brian’s future wife Melinda Ledbetter (the sublime Elizabeth Banks), a car saleswoman who becomes an audience surrogate, as she gradually sees the horrors Landy commits to his patient. An incident involving the psychiatrist’s temper at a barbeque is particularly chill-inducing. These scenes are as strong as they are quietly devastating: in the two decades between the timelines, Brian has become a shell of what he once was, as a mix of mental illness (described as paranoid schizophrenia by the not—particularly—reliable Landy) and improper treatment left him bedridden for several years.
Through these sequences, Melinda emerges as the hero of the story. Despite the fact that the screenplay would probably fail the Bechdel test, it takes great pains to show her as an intelligent, competent woman (judging by her different offices, she seems to receive several promotions throughout the film) who has a life outside of Brian. When she realizes that Landy is doing significantly more harm than good, she sets out to free Brian from his captor. Elizabeth Banks is dazzling in this role. The actress, whose incredible year has included breaking box-office records for her directorial debut, “Pitch Perfect 2,” projects such warmth to her character that Melinda could secretly kill puppies, and the audience would still root for her. You go into the film looking forward to seeing Brian Wilson, and, as the lights go up, you clap for his wife.
Abrams is a member of the class of 2018.
