Alternate Best Actor 2015: Paul Dano and John Cusack in Love & Mercy

Paul Dano did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for a Golden Globe, for portraying young Brian Wilson and John Cusack did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying old Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. 

Love & Mercy is an effective biopic that follows Brian Wilson during two different tumultuous times in his life. 

 

Watching the film again only reaffirmed my affection for this film, particularly for its off-beat choice in its biopic design. This as the two sides of the man are not segmented into the up and comer, and the old man reflecting, it is something very different here in terms of the way the two timelines play off one another. A reason for this is the central casting of John Cusack and Paul Dano, who are two very different actors, who don't necessarily look all that much like each other and don't look that much like Brian Wilson either. I love this decision actually, one being it separates the design of the film as truly two stories, with two men, as the one man in very different places in life, this accepting of this separation all the easier due to the two actors playing the part. One being John Cusack, a well known actor, and even better known in terms of his type as that charming yet not quiet fully confident type. All that's thrown out here in Cusack probably giving one of his least John Cusack style performances. This as we see in the introduction to old Brian as he is looking for a car with a warm saleswoman Melinda (Elizabeth Banks), while being loomed over by Brian's "bodyguard". Cusack's performance is that of a guy who has been through some kind of hell, and really his only communication now is through almost a kind of whisper. What I love about what Cusack is doing is as affected as his speech is here, that speaks towards Brian's state after years of substance abuse "cured" by psychological abuse, is how genuine he feels in his attitude of this beaten though kind spirit in Brian. It's there as he speaks to why his shoes are off, why he has his bodyguard and even in his brother's death. Cusack brings this meek but wonderful sense of a man trying to reach out in the smallest of ways. 

This seemingly broken man though was supposedly in his prime as we find the young Brian played by Paul Dano, an actor who is one of the more interesting performer in his age group if in part from his willingness to basically just go for it. Dano in his second scene shows a very different Brian, but a Brian who is going through another kind of hell. And again I love the separation it creates by us seeing this man who is on his way towards the other man, but has far to go. This as we see in his breakdown upon a plane, Dano's performance delivers its own anguish but this is raw and extremely painful. Dano effectively going into the full throws of the anxiety of the moment. A moment though as we follow Brian in a very different setting, and I'll just bluntly say that Dano is brilliant here. This in creating a very different idiosyncratic man from Cusack, that feels similar in his particular style of not one's traditional notions of "normal", however here it will strike one a bit differently. Dano captures this very particular state that you can either accept as a man an eccentric genius or a man on the verge of a breakdown...while it's really both. Dano though is great in the enthusiasm he speaks, as he convinces the rest of the band to let him stop touring and just write, is wholly genuine and you see that spark of inspiration in his eyes that is so palatable. At the same time the sort of need within that spark Dano makes almost too intense, however in that built up intensity there is a sense of the man's pain that he himself doesn't know what to make of. 

The film jumps back and forth between the times at will, quite artfully I'd say, each one though showing a different side of Brian though each in a way getting to who he is. Cusack, I suppose fittingly, has the romantic side, though this is no John Cusack romcom performance. There still is something wholly charming and sweet about him here in his lovely chemistry with Elizabeth Banks, who is also wonderful. This as Cusack plays almost the moments between them initially as these little moments of happiness and of a guy just connecting best he can. This as his posture is so defeated as a man, and just is there practically like a beaten animal as he is watched over by his "doctor" Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). Cusack's brief moments are so beautifully modest though in the brief indications of tenderness towards her, and gives the sense of a man just so timidly attempting to be happy with something while still being wholly fearful of what is around him. Dano also depicts a man in love though with his young Brian it is being in love with music. Something I love about Love and Mercy, that most musical biopics fail miserably in, is showing the creative process and really the sense of working for true inspiration. This as Dano expresses this value in this act so richly in every moment of creativity. There is an essential moment of performance against the reaction of Brian's father. Dano is heartbreaking in portraying Brian's attempt to describe the song for his father, this as he brings so much excitement in trying describe it, while also showing such a need for approval in his pitch. This making Brian's father's cruel tone all the more painful, as Dano expresses just how much this type of disregard for his art cuts so deep.

 

 Of course not every moment is thankfully always traumatic and my absolute favorite scenes of the film, is when we see Brian exploring his music in a recording session. Dano is fantastic in the scene because of just how alive he is in the sequence. This as his eyes bring that real sense of drive in every moment of examining each instrument, event piece of his song, they are piercing in showing a man striving for a kind of perfection. He balances that though with the sheer sense of fun he brings to playing around with the different musicians and explaining his ideas. Dano shows a man in this moment living his best life in the creative process that is a combination of drive, but also just love of the process. Honestly I could've watched a whole film of just Dano playing around in the studio as he brings so much life to it. The closest comparison I can make is Tom Hulce as Mozart in Amadeus, where both actors are able to make the creative process not some intangible thing, but rather wholly vivid in terms of the sense of the particular rhythm for it, however also through finding the joy in it. What Dano does with this though in a way though is make it in itself something borderline. This as Dano's expression dances between one of sheer jubilation and also nearly a demented state. This as Dano emphasizing how much of just one's man kind of personal will placing himself into this act, and crafting the state of a man who is both intends to make something truly great, while also personally falling apart. 

Where there is the unmistakable connection between both performances is that Brian in a way is a man unto himself in terms of personality. This as even his way of dealing with the world is wholly different from the average person, and in each phase though Cusack and Dano depict this a little disparately. Dano's work is more expressive in this regard as his very energy in a given scene is something special in itself. This as just as he moves around, or even just as he can't quite sit in a seat. The way he looks around and interacts with his space, Dano creates a sense of the man in a way seemingly deciphering the world in his own unusual fashion. He never looks or responds quite the expected way, but entirely does so in the way that feels true to his Brian. Now Cusack is far more subdued within the portrayal of this trait, though it is still evident in his performance. Fittingly though it is of a man who has had much of his life stripped out of him. That specific energy though is still found, even so modestly, in his moments of interaction with Banks, particularly a moment of expressing his love for her via a brief song, that is completely idiosyncratic in a romantic gesture, which Cusack in turn portrays in a wholly idiosyncratic way. Cusack seemingly almost lost in the words, not quite listless though, as there is a purity of the tenderness within it all of again, the man who simply has his own way of interacting within the world. 

The film follows then really on the descent of Brian towards his darkest chapter with Dano while we see the man returning to a semblance of normality through his relationship with Melinda. Cusack's work is one that is built upon that chemistry with Banks that really succeeds. This just in Banks bringing such an abundance of warmth, against Cusack';s moving portrayal of the slow return towards any sense of a mutual affection with anyone. Their final scene I found absolutely heartwarming as it earns the moment of the man returning to himself and showing it to Melinda, and Cusack does this just by being a little more outgoing, still Brian, but now with finally a comfort and pride in himself. Dano on the other-hand powerfully depicts the man falling towards a painful time. This in the moments of overt horror as Brian suffers from horrific audio hallucinations, which Dano grants the right visceral intensity to show just how crippling these are. In this though Dano depicts a man already on edge for a multitude of reasons falling apart all the more. Dano's terrific in showing the different pulls within the man that are essentially tearing him apart, from his strained relationship with his father, his struggles with his artistic endeavors, drugs and just seemingly losing his connection with reality. Dano's performance vividly conveys each factor. This as there is the physical distress, but there is also the emotional. Emotional both of the man just trying to get his vision out there and often facing dismissal, and that of a defeated son looking and failing to see genuine love from his jealous father. And in this we see the connection between Cusack and Dano. This as Dano's descent gives up to Cusack's quiet rise. This of a man taking all of the world in and suffering for it, against a man closed off from all of it, suffering all the same. The two almost wholly separately creating their own portrait of Brian Wilson however mutually making captivating depictions of one soul.

(For Cusack)

(For Dano)