Capsule Reviews
Maestro
Leonard Bernstein was a wildly talented, larger-than-life conductor, composer, and teacher. His story could be told in a dozen different ways.
Bradley Cooper, director and star of the movie Maestro, chooses to focus on Bernstein’s personal life. At first I was skeptical of this approach, but finally I decided that it was a legitimate way to tell the story—certainly better than the kind of generic biopic so often done—and that Cooper tells it well.
As shown in the movie, Bernstein was established in his gay life before his wife-to-be Felicia (played movingly by Carey Mulligan) came along, and she decided she could rein in his male relationships enough to accommodate a family life.
Using the force of her personality and his obvious love for her, she tried to reengineer his relationships, and it never completely worked. She was frequently frustrated, as shown in one scene when she claimed that all his work was based on anger—classic projection, since clearly she was the one who was angry. The film shows, however, that on her deathbed Felicia took back the accusation, and that the two of them shared a deep love.
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