By John Corrado

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

The latest film directed by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey, Better Man is a biopic of British pop star Robbie Williams, from his boy band days to his solo career. Narratively, it’s mostly a pretty by-the-numbers biopic, save for the fact that Williams is played by a CGI monkey. It’s certainly a bold cinematic choice, but you also kinda get used to it. I enjoyed the film overall.

Gracey directs a number of high-energy musical numbers, as the film follows Williams from his childhood in England, as a young boy (or monkey). Young Robbie gets his shot at fame when he auditions for a new boy band, and becomes a part of Take That (a group initially designed to perform in gay clubs). But ends up struggling in the shadow of Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance), and pursues a solo career.

The film doesn’t shy away from showing the dark side of his fame, including all the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, as Robbie embraces his “bad boy” image. At the heart of the film is his strained relationship to his father Peter (Steve Pemberton), who instilled in him a love of showmanship but also walked out on him and his mother (Kate Mulvany) when he was a child. Some of the film’s most touching moments are with Robbie and his grandmother (Alison Steadman), who helped raise him.

We get a somewhat standard music biopic, but with a pretty audacious, potentially alienating choice at the centre of it (even to fans of Williams who want to see his face). So the fact that Better Man works at all, and sometimes quite well, is impressive. We do wonder at times how this would have played without the digital makeup (or if it would have been better). But, if not explicitly stated, it’s clearly meant as a metaphor of how Williams feels like a trained monkey, needing to dance for approval.

It’s perhaps a bit of trolling from a pop star known for his cheekiness. Gracey’s film is about showing the vulnerable interior beneath his cocky pop star exterior, and in this way the monkey conceit actually pays off surprisingly well. The monkey version of Williams, who is played by Jonno Davies through motion capture technology with Williams voicing him, manages to be surprisingly emotive.

The film is somehow still able to deliver the emotional impact when it needs to (including the moving sequence where the titular song “Better Man” finally plays), through some impressive visual effects work that recalls the modern Planet of the Apes movies. It’s definitely a pretty wild swing for a musical biopic, but Gracey and Williams manage to pull it off in the end.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Public Screenings: Monday, September 9th, 5:30 PM at Roy Thomson Hall; Tuesday, September 10th, 4:45 PM at Scotiabank Theatre; Thursday, September 12th, 5:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre; Saturday, September 14th, 5:00 PM at Scotiabank Theatre