My God, there is a lot of pain and suffering in the world.  So many cry out to you from a place of agony, though they do not acknowledge that it is You to whom they are calling.  They seek You, the comfort that only comes from a relationship with You, in all the wrong places.  We fear not having it, whatever it is, despite knowing from our inner-most depths that it is love.  There is nothing else.  Our breath, heart, and soul reach out and yearns for it.  You bless this world with it abundantly, but Your people obfuscate Your work in this world.  They say it is unfair when they perceive others to have it and think themselves bereft.  If only I could have that which was never mine to possess, then I would be happy.  It becomes a mantra for some.  What that forgets is that by possessing only You, they possess everything they need.  Everything else is a gift, everything, and should be treated as such.  The fact that I am able to go to the theater and see a movie like Better Man is a grace that I too often take for granted.  I do not necessarily wish that those who read my blog see this film.  However, my heart’s desire for them is to get to know You, to understand that I am praying for them, and that they can get through their struggles whatever they may be.

For young Robert Williams (voiced by Carter J. Murphy), his first struggle, rather than being a Better Man, is to be a better soccer player.  Perhaps I should say football since this takes place in England.  He has bravado, but it is clearly to make up for a feeling of inadequacy.  This stems from his relationship with his father, Peter Williams (Steve Pemberton). Peter idolizes the old crooners, especially Frank Sinatra (stock footage).  Upon returning from work, Peter and Robert sing along with a Sinatra tune on the television until Robert has a misstep and accidentally knocks to rabbit ears off kilter, ruining the reception.  Peter is angry with Robert for messing up the finale.  Robert’s grandmother, Betty Williams (Alison Steadman), tries to cheer up the little chimp by telling him how great he will be one day.  From this is born Robert’s desire to be a star, which is only fueled when Peter leaves the family to pursue his own delusions of grandeur.  By the time Robert (voiced by Jonno Davies) is a teenager, he, too, is pursuing dreams of fame.  Instead of focusing on his studies, he puts all his hopes in an audition with Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman), a local musical talent manager who is seeking to put together a boy band.  Nigel is not impressed with Robert’s act, but it is the chimp’s bravado that gets Robert a callback.  It could not have come at a better time as Robert spends a disappointing evening with Peter after so many years, and finds dad still more focused on making it big rather than being a parent.  Robert’s spirits are picked up by the opportunity to join Nigel’s group, called Take That.  He does not care that Nigel insists that Robert go by Robbie, or that the Robbie is reminded all the time that fellow Take That member Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance) is the more talented musician.  Robbie is just excited, at first, to be in the spotlight.  They are not getting that big playing at clubs for homosexuals until Nigel books them a congruent venue just for girls.  From there, Take That’s popularity soars.  Yet, as Nigel had predicted, feuds begin to form.  The main one is between Gary and Robbie, egged on by Nigel, over the writing of songs.  Robbie is already self-conscious, and his suspicions turn to alcohol and drug abuse in order to cope with the mounting pressures of whether he is being taken seriously.  When his substance use becomes a problem, the other four get together and ask that he leave the group.  Robbie pretends to take it well, but he angrily takes to the road and gets into an accident.  The dissolution of Take That is blamed on him, leaving him without a direction.  It is during this time that he meets Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), a member of an all-girl signing trio.  Given their common entries into the music world, they instantly hit it off and become engaged.  In perhaps the saddest moment from a Catholic perspective, the record label forces her to get an abortion, which puts a strain on her relationship.  It is while celebrating a bit album with Nicole’s band that Robbie has a run-in with Liam Gallagher (Leo Harvey-Elledge), the lead singer for Oasis.  Liam is just as strung out as Robbie, but the former advises the latter to write better songs.  With this, Robbie starts working with Guy Chambers (Tom Budge), a producer and song writer who helps bring the lyrics Robbie has kept hidden in his notebook to music.  Slowly, Robbie earns recognition for his work, with number one albums and songs.  His success brings him the opportunity to play at the Knebworth Music Festival.  At the same time, the more accolades he garners for his music, the more his demons close in on him.  This leads to greater levels of substance abuse, with Nicole leaving him when she finds him after he uses heroine.  It gets worse after Betty dies.  He also turns his back on family and friends until it is time to give his performance at Knebworth.  As the show unfolds, it appears that all the poor self-images of himself attack, and suddenly the movie takes the form of an action epic as he slays all the doubters.  Nonetheless, it is not enough and he is about to take his own life when he sees the light.  I wish I could say this is good, but it is actually the realization that he needs to enter rehabilitation.  Following detoxification, he makes amends with his family and friends before concluding with a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Through my descriptions of this so-called Better Man, I hope you caught my references to Robbie being a chimpanzee. That is the form he takes throughout the movie, telling the audience in this biopic that this is how he sees himself.  I kept wondering if there was going to be a moment when he starts behaving like a member of his species, or somebody acknowledges his appearance, but this never comes.  What they would be doing by looking at only the exterior would be playing into Robbie’s own insecurities.  The very name, Robbie, is something behind which he hides.  As such, it is Robbie and not sweet, innocent little Robert, who is the performing monkey with a drug problem.  It is Robbie who will give the fans whatever it is they want, who tell him what he should want, and essentially tailor his life for him.  It is a story-telling device that I must confess looked strange in the trailers, but works, I suppose.  The critics seemed to have liked it, anyway.  For a Catholic film reviewer, all I could think about was how out of phase it is with how God sees us.  It works for the story to a degree, but it also suggests that he will remain a lower primate.  The film suggests this is because he is a born entertainer, and that his growth comes from conquering his struggles.  This is incomplete without God.  He sees through any façade we might put up, sees out heart, and tries to reach us there accordingly.  The more we stray from His touch, the harder we make like for ourselves.  As I said in the introduction, God is love.  This concept is put in action when Robbie apologizes to his family and friends.  Only by experiencing that feeling will we ever be what the title suggests.

The fact that the Better Man that Robert becomes involves having to make amends can be attributed to a variety of factors already covered, mainly pertaining to his acknowledgement of suffering from depression.  When I heard that, my Catholic brain stuck on the word “suffering.”  As an emotional disorder, it is arguably the hardest a Christian can experience.  To be depressed is often associated with feelings of hopelessness, which is the opposite of what Jesus brought into the world.  This might appear counter-intuitive as Robbie has nothing but aspirations and hopes: to become a pop star, to write his own music, to play at Knebworth, etc.  Like his nickname, though, they become the thing that other people want for him. The thing that sticks with him the most and is the cause of his emotional trouble is he want of the love of his father.  It is sad when this does not work as it should as we see in the movie.  When it works correctly, father and son reflect the love of God in this world.  This is what Jesus did, and what He asks His followers to do.  As we see in the movie, not doing so, particularly among non-Christians, leads to more brokenness in the world.  Interestingly, Robbie is featured going to meetings for addicts.  Since this is in England, I am not sure if it is also called alcoholics anonymous (AA).  Here in the United States, step three in that program is about acknowledging the existence of a higher power.  Sometimes this is defined as God, but, like the film, this is not a key part of the proceedings, sadly.

There is some discussion of theology in Better Man, but mostly as it pertains to Peter’s three gods of music: Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Sinatra.  There is a nice lyric about how one cannot manufacture a miracle.  You either have the God given talent or you do not.  This is a lie, of course, and along with the sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, another reason why you should avoid this movie.