Review: 'Better Man' puts a computer-animated chimp in the place of British singer Robbie Williams, for a cheeky reset of the musical biopic

The musical biographical drama “Better Man” is a straightforward warts-and-all account of the life of British singing star Robbie Williams. Except for one thing in the telling that occasionally makes the movie spectacular.

Director Michael Gracey (“The Greatest Showman”) takes us through Williams’ story, from a poor, bullied kid growing up in Stoke-on-Trent, the last kid picked for soccer and the cheekiest boy in class. He lives with his doting Nan (Alison Steadman), his hard-working mum (Kate Mulvany), and his policeman dad (Steve Pemberton) — who worships Frank Sinatra and harbors a desire to be a lounge singer. One day, Robert (as he’s called by his family) sees Dad leave on a football-supporters bus for London and never return.

Robert auditions for a spot in a boy band, but his singing doesn’t impress the producer, Nigel Martin Smith (Damon Herriman) — but his cheekiness does. Nigel selects Robert for his pop quintet, Take That, changes the lad’s name to Robbie, and sets them off on the road to stardom. Gracey puts his music-video skills to good use with one energetic number, to the band’s hit “Rock DJ,” cycling through several levels of fame in a couple of minutes.

Robbie’s story proceeds through success and excess, mostly through alcohol and cocaine — until Robbie is forced out of Take That and works to reinvent himself as a solo artist. There’s a lovely interlude in which Robbie meets Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), from the girl group All Saints, and they dance a duet on a yacht to Williams’ cover of World Party’s “She’s the One,” that encapsulates the highs and lows of their two-year relationship.

The script — by Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole and Gracey — follows the contours of a standard musician biopic. It’s less ploddingly literal than the Freddie Mercury film “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and more prone to flights of fancy like Elton John’s biographical drama “Rocketman.” And, except for that one thing that’s different, that’s all “Better Man” depicts.

That one thing is how Robbie says he sees himself, at all the stages of his life: As an animal, something unevolved. So Gracey shows Robbie, from beginning to end, as a chimpanzee in human clothing — seamlessly realized through computer animation, with Williams providing his own voice to accompany Jonno Davies’ performance-capture movements. 

Robbie as chimp, we’re told, symbolizes Williams’ long bouts with depression. It’s explained that, because of his father’s influence, Robbie grew up thinking the only way to measure his self-worth was by how many other people knew who he was. He pursued fame relentlessly, and when he caught it, it still didn’t fill the hole in his soul.

Seeing Williams as something not himself is a creative way around a problem that most musician biopics face: The wide gulf between subject and performer. In a more routine biopic, some actor would be cast who would either struggle to imitate the singer’s voice — or, worse, lip-sync to Williams’ tracks. Not every movie can get Timothée Chalamet to be their Bob Dylan, and Gracey and Williams are smart enough to try something else.

Sometimes, Gracey’s metaphorical depictions of Williams’ life are a bit on the nose — like a sequence where he literally battles his judgmental past selves, or a finale in which he sings “My Way.” But the experiment, or gimmick if you prefer, generally works, and makes “Better Man” rather better than the average biopic.

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‘Better Man’

★★★

Opens Friday, January 10, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for drug use, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some violent content. Running time: 134 minutes.