"Too Off-Putting and Excessive"

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What You Need To Know:
BETTER MAN is an unconventional biopic in that Robbie is portrayed as a humanoid chimpanzee throughout the story. Robbie once said that sometimes he felt like a performing monkey. Sadly, the movie doesn’t always work and is rather depressing and off-putting because Robbie has psychological and substance abuse problems. BETTER MAN also has lots of strong, gratuitous foul language, some nudity and homosexual references. However, some of the musical numbers are terrific. Also, Robbie eventually repents, goes into rehab and reconciles with his father.
Content:
More Detail:
BETTER MAN is a biopic of popular British singer Robbie Williams, who’s had more Number One albums in Britain than anyone, including Elvis. Robbie goes from being in one of the early boy bands, Take That, of the 1990s, then launches an extremely successful solo career. However, his struggles with depression, identity and substance abuse, rooted partly in his troubled relationship with his father, who abandoned the family, threaten to derail his life.
As a young boy, Robbie loves singing Sinatra with his father, who dreams of being a musical comedy star. Robbie’s father abandons the family to pursue his show business career. So, Robbie feels unloved, unworthy and depressed. He gets a huge break, though, when he becomes part of one of the first boy bands, Take That, in the early 1990s. The band starts out appealing to homosexuals but quickly finds a more mainstream audience. Eventually, Robbie launches an extremely successful solo career. However, his struggles with depression, identity and substance abuse, rooted in his troubled relationship with his father, threaten to derail everything. They hurt many of his personal relationships and even lead him to contemplate suicide.
BETTER MAN is an unconventional biopic in that Robbie is portrayed as a humanoid chimpanzee throughout the story. Robbie once said that sometimes he felt like a performing monkey. Sadly, the movie doesn’t always work and is rather depressing and off-putting because Robbie has psychological and substance abuse problems. BETTER MAN also has lots of strong, gratuitous foul language, some nudity and homosexual references. However, some of the music, singing and dance numbers are terrific. For example, a raucous dance number of Williams’ hit “Rock DJ” is lots of fun, and a romantic dance number to the song “She’s the One” is beautifully done. Also, Robbie eventually repents, goes into rehab and reconciles with his father. Finally, BETTER MAN also shows that pursuing fame to satisfy a damaged and warped ego is a bad thing. Thus, fame is often not very satisfying.