Gilroy’s messy music drama has plenty of soaring moments but struggles to play a consistent tune.
The weight of constricting child prodigy status is the catalyst for Tony Gilroy’s latest Behemoth! a film that begins in enthralling fashion but struggles to maintain its momentum in an underwhelming character study whose central protagonist is ultimately not all that interesting.
Opening on a dazzlingly emphatic musical number Pedro Pascal is Alex Serian, a famous child musical prodigy all grown up and working as a part of an orchestra that creates acclaimed film scores. The weight and emphasis of the music is a theme running throughout the film as we watch Alex’s life play out accompanied by his own scores, acting as an introspective, lyrical comment on his confusing existence. He’s not quite burnt out or completely spiralling but he lacks purpose and adopts a ghostly, cold demeanor to the many platitudes thrown his way. He’s been sleeping with the wife of one of the wealthy Chicago based orchestra’s patron’s Carol Spedding (Olivia Wilde) , an overbearing, semi-psycotic woman with a vengeance. His brother Andy is also bemoaning his music career going sideways and acts erratically in his unhappy marriage. These competing factors add plenty of unnecessary stress onto Alex as he deals with the pressures of expectation and the world’s view of him after inflated, early stardom.
The story morphs into something slightly different when Alex ends up sleeping with Nadia Hynes (Eva Victor) a musician in a choir he performed in at a fancy event but just like everyone else, he can’t make the relationship stick. With the film spanning many years, Alex begins to think he may be somehow connected to supremely talented fifteen year old artist Viviana (Alex Swanson) and begins seeking answers to his complicated existence. Is this girl simply a reflection of the boy he once was and the life he was designed for or are they linked in some other way?
The whole film rests on Pedro Pascal’s shoulders who is on camera in pretty much every scene. He tries to offer a complex portrayal of the fluctuating emotional state of Alex but this requires a subtlety he doesn’t quite possess. He’s good as the titular musician but never impresses beyond the obvious and it doesn’t feel like the type of gargantuan performance of a Cate Blanchett in Tár and the character of a washed up yet privileged man trying to work out who he is feels limitingly familiar.
The score is a real highlight, created by nine separate composers known as the ‘Behemoth! collective’ there’s a mix of elegant harps, loud thriller esque moments and everything in between. And while this music greatly adds to the film it can make certain sequences feel much more elevated than others, as if the best of the score has been reserved for stronger moments that make smaller ones feel more insignificant.
Behemoth! we learn, is the name of the film that the orchestra must score towards the end and literally translate to someone large, powerful and often unwieldy. This sums up the lack of control Alex has had over so many years and the impossible task of trying to get a grip on something as slippery as notoriety and the pressure of privilege. It also represents Gilroy’s bullish approach to directing and even though he clearly knows how to construct riveting, balletic sequences there’s a quality akin to a giant beast swinging its arms around that feels uncontrolled. Perhaps this is the intention but when so much of the craft feels so alive the film is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.
3 / 5
Behemoth! is an admirable attempt at an epic on a smaller scale that doesn’t quite have a catchy enough hook to stand out from other great character studies.
