Better Man is a wonderful film, and we can only try to tell you about these over two hours of incredible spectacle and great emotions. A roller coaster that takes us into the existence and heart of a man who aimed to become one of the gods of music and who, in realizing that dream, realized, however, that all that glitters is certainly not gold and that you can also get to the top of the world, but if in the depths of yourself there are forces that work against you and you don’t face them, you are still doomed to defeat.

Robbie Williams’s is an incredible and daring human adventure and, at the end of the film, you cannot help but admire the courage with which, once again, he made himself available to the public, giving his living flesh to a a work which is also a great spectacle for the eyes, thanks to the imaginative touch of Michael Gracey who gives us an innovative and powerful film, full of poetry, bold metaphors and a succession of scenes of great visual as well as emotional impact . Without forgetting the music, Robbie’s great hits, which are at the same time sublimation and skeleton of the story, often accompanied by choreographies which, as in the case of “Feel” and “Rock dj”, are real fireworks.

The film will be released in Italian cinemas on 1 January 2025.

Better man, Robbie Williams talks about his crises: “Enough drugs. To those who feel lost I say to ask for help”

Better Man, the plot

Robert Williams is a bullied boy in Stoke-on-Trent in the 1980s. He feels less and less than others and for this reason, even if, as if we were under a spell we don’t pay attention for even a second, we see him represented as a monkey. It’s the way that little boy looking for warmth sees himself and will continue to see himself over the years: “always less evolved than the others”. Robert lives with his father, a man attracted by the lights of entertainment, who adores the artists of the Sinatra clan and tells his son, while they sing My Way together in the living room, how those men, the entertainers, are gods with the magical power to make forget people’s problems.

When this bizarre and frustrated father decides to try the path of showbiz, leaving home and family to themselves, Robert remains with his mother and beloved grandmother to cultivate the ambition of becoming someone, to achieve the only thing he has always wanted : the father’s attentions. At 16 the big opportunity arrives: thanks to his cheek and good looks he is chosen for a new boy band: Take That. We all know how it happened, but Robbie has his say here, which doesn’t coincide at all with what they told us at the time. From that moment on, however, Robert becomes Robbie, but his ascent to heaven coincides with a descent into the hell that lies within himself. As his success grows, his demons become more intrusive until he sinks into depression and then into the vortex of addictions.

Robbie is removed from the band and finds himself alone again, he is convinced, he will never make it. He ends up lower and lower, but finds a way out in the desire for revenge, an always very powerful engine. Then he meets an important love, Nicole Appleton of All Saints, and finds the way to believe in himself and become Robbie Williams, no longer just the ex Take That, but the pop star for stadium concerts. The revenge on an environment that had marginalized him, however, is not enough to calm the impostor syndrome that eats him from the inside. And while he seeks a balance between life and stage, other events break him, overwhelm him and push him further down every time he tries to raise his head again.

Better Man is the most extraordinary and original biopic seen at the cinema

Better Man is a film not to be missed. The human material on which it rests, the story full of shadows and few lights, but still dazzling by Robbie Williams, is the basis on which a visionary director who is not afraid to take risks then puts his hands, eye, heart, talent and creative flair and by trusting himself he gives us an innovative, as well as unforgettable, film. Gracey immediately makes a risky move, which surprises. The protagonist? We make him a monkey.

This element, which should be the most alienating, is instead the one that gives the film the deepest and yes, even the most “human” substance. As Williams’ voice explains at the beginning, he is a monkey because this is how he sees himself, since he has always felt “less evolved” than others. But being “less advanced” also means having less superstructure, therefore also less armor and less protection. In this story, the protagonist renounces every frill, to present himself so sincere, naked and defenseless as to provoke immediate empathy in the viewer. And once he has captured our hearts, with those large and perpetually disoriented eyes, that little chimpanzee from Stoke-on-Trent, we can no longer abandon him to his fate, even when he deserves it.

The rise to success which coincides with the descent into personal hell, the certainly not serene relationship with popularity, the difficulty of experiencing even true love in a world, that of 90s pop, which squeezes the young stars of a few seasons, the compromises, the envy, the rebellions, the instinct of self-destruction, the tensions, the pains and the deepest desires betrayed to realize those of others, the disastrous falls and the tiring rises but also, in the background, the years of Cool Britannia, the explosive musical scene of Brit pop, always poised between indie splendors and pre-packaged for MTV, all this and much more becomes a spectacular cinematographic work, of great impact, in a succession of extraordinary scenic inventions, passages profoundly poetic, surprising narrative solutions, overwhelming choreography, changes of tone and register that mix in a whirlwind carousel up to the pitched battle which, on the very day in which the As his career reaches its highest and most desired point, Robbie decides to face all his demons, looking them in the eye and fighting them without running away in an epic and finally cathartic scene.

A film that is like magic: it tells much more about darkness than light, yet it always does so in a sparkling way. Then there is much more, but we simply admit, once again: “Robbie, you knocked us all out”.

Rating: 8.5