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or ‘The Robbie Williams Monkey Movie’ as it will forever be better known. 

It is never definitively stated why Williams is played by a chimpanzee in this musical biopic. The poster says ‘Fame makes monkeys of us all’ and the trailer takes a line of dialogue from the end of the film about how it’s protagonist has always felt under evolved. There is also the idea of him as a dancing monkey, made to perform with little concern for his welfare and how at his lower points in the story he is quite animalistic in his motivations and reactions. In the end though it is a gimmick to make the movie stand out in a crowded market place. There have been any number of popstar rags to riches before. The one with Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan comes out in a couple of weeks. This even has a lot of the same narrative beats as many of the others but Better Man isn’t like any of them because of the monkey. 

Gimmick or not, there is no denying it works. I’ve enjoyed the music of Robbie Williams in the past, I’ve even seen him perform live and thought he was excellent, but I’d probably not have chosen to see a cinematic version of his life story. The monkey intrigued me though. It goes beyond marketing too; in the context of the full movie the idea is also successful. It means that none of the scenes are ever pedestrian, and without this angle a few of them might have been.

There are plenty of moments that make the movie stand out as well though, even without its simian star. The director is Michael Gracey whose other feature is The Greatest Showman and there is a similarity in the style and staging of the musical numbers. If anything this is more ambitious and there is one extended scene in Regent Street that is almost reason enough to see the film. It is brilliantly orchestrated, quite tongue in cheek and nicely employs elements of montage.

There is actually a lot of montage in this film, most movies have one bit where elements of the plot are quickly laid out this way but this one keeps doing it. More, you could argue, than is really acceptable as this is a lot of narrative shorthand. They get away with it because of the inventiveness of each one though. The one around the start of Williams’ relationship with Nicole Appleton is a particular treat.

Crucially the movie handles the serious stuff well too. As well as being a fun the film is often quite moving and the balance is okay. The depiction of Williams’ conflict with others is a bit cliched. Apparently on seeing the movie Gary Barlow said he thought he came across like Darth Vader but he needn’t worry, this aspect doesn’t feel real enough to be a take down. The Gallagher Brothers are presented as proper arseholes but I suspect but they’d not mind. The person that comes off worse is Williams himself and his personal conflicts, self destructive nature and depression are believable. The story, that Williams actually narrates, is built around a series of interviews Gracey conducted with him and it doesn’t hide how he was both troubled and often totally obnoxious. Barlow actually seems to be a bit of a saint for putting up with him. 

Unlike the Elton John biopic Rocketman, which (chimp not withstanding) this is quite similar to, the ending spends time on its hero once they have got past their problems as well and it ends in a good place. Essentially the movie follows the sentiment of one of Robbie Williams most famous songs; ‘I’m a burning effigy of everything I used to be. You’re my rock of empathy, my dear. So come on, let me entertain you.’ and it genuinely does.

Despite its central conceit then, it doesn’t make a monkey out of its famous subject and it manages not to ape previous tellings of similar stories. Better Man is not groundbreaking but the whole thing comes together well and it will make more conventional musician’s stories seem unadventurous by comparison.

I wonder if it is too late to replace Chalamet with a capybara.

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Robbie Williams at Live 8, London, July 2005 where I saw him play.