Better Man Movie

I only saw this movie recently, although it came out in 2024, and I will be honest, I would never have gone to see it if it was my own choice of movie. My fiancé said to me, “I would like to go and see a movie, but I don’t think you will like it.” “Why?” I asked. “Well, it is a musical, it is about Robbie Williams, and he is a CGI monkey.” I just stared at him, considering what to say. I do not like monkeys or apes at all, in any way shape or form. My reasons are not relevant here so I will skip over that. I am also not a fan of Robbie Williams, although I do like a couple of his songs. I blinked and considered, and decided that if the tables were turned, my fiancé would come with me to a movie if I really wanted to see it, so I tentatively said, “Well, I do like a couple of his songs….” “Great. Shall we go now then? There is a showing in about an hour.” I was surprised again because this would be an afternoon show and we always went to the cinema in the evenings. I jumped up and got ready to go out in a bit of a scramble and off we went, with me wondering what the hell I had let myself in for.

Whatever I expected… what I actually saw was not it.

On the face of it, it is about a sad little boy who was wounded by not being loved by his father, unable to appreciate the love from his mother, grandmother, wife and best friend as a consequence. He finds fame at a young age, never matures emotionally, and falls into the celebrity fame traps and pitfalls of sex, drugs, partying and so on. The man-child throws epic tantrums, trashing things, pushing people away and acting like a total dickhead. In this movie, I don’t feel that Robbie Williams experienced the worst that life has to offer by a long shot, and only made things worse for himself, however, it is true that things in life can scar us deeply and infect our whole being, so I really get it. The story line is pretty much what you would expect to see.

The movie is not what you would expect to see. Not. At. All. Once I got past the monkey thing, I was taken on a visual extravaganza, with the cinematic representations of emotional turmoil reaching deep within me and striking a chord. No, striking is too soft a word. I felt ravaged by the emotional imagery. Every ounce of pity, empathy, sympathy, and personal pain was ripped out from within me and it poured out of my eyes in a never-ending stream of tears. I could not speak, I could not think, I could only feel, which is apt, being the name of one of Robbie William’s songs.

I confess, I do cry easily in movies, even in animated ones, but this was next level crying. It wasn’t a few tears and the though of “Oh fuck, I hope no-one noticed those slip out.” No. This was a continual stream of tears that came from my very soul.

The honesty is raw, and the vulnerability of putting yourself, your life and your feelings out there like this… astounding. There are funny bits, there are every day bits, there are bits where you roll your eyes and think, typical Robbie Williams, and I did get tired of seeing monkeys in his performance audience because you know, we already got it. But there was something much more that what you actually see in the way his emotions were represented cinematically. Something deep. Something that affected me badly.

When I left the cinema, I could not speak. When my fiancé asked, “What did you think”, I could not speak. As we drove home I was silent and he said to me, “Are you okay? What’s the matter?” I managed to squeak out, “That was hard hitting. I need some time to recover.” I did not speak again all the way home. I can only say, I felt ravaged, I felt wounded, I felt everything, and I cried some more tears.

When I got home, I thought, I need to write about this movie, but it has taken me over a week to be able to do so. .

I see the reviews online. They talk about the humour, the excessive length of some sections, the too much snorting of cocaine, comments on Robbie William as a musician and entertainer and blah blah blah. I do not see anyone say they were decimated by this movie. Yet I was.

What can I say? Better Man movie impacted me on a core level and I felt it, rather than saw it.

Do I like Robbie Williams any more now that I have an understanding of him? Well, no, not really. Would I go and see this movie again? Never. Not even if you paid me to. Would I recommend you go and see it? Well, no one else seemed as destroyed by it as I was and it is a really good movie, so yes. Yes, indeed. But take tissues, just in case…