Love and Mercy - B+

Paul Dano as a young Brian Wilson

Rated PG-13, 120 minutes

Music the most fascinating part of the superbly acted, compelling Wilson bio drama "Love and Mercy"

"God only knows what we'd be without you," proclaims one of the most famous songs of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. The music world was a different and often better place with Wilson's presence, and the pensive, well-acted but absorbing new biographical drama "Love and Mercy" explores a gifted musician in control of his music but far less so with his personal life, and without the doubt behind-the-scenes music aspects are the most interesting. In the 1960s, young songwriter and recording savant Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) finds himself in the midst of extraordinary success with hit songs with The Beach Boys. After a panic attack, he then focuses on his signature album called "Pet Sounds" and struggles with psychological problems.  In the 1980s, a now-middle-aged Wilson (John Cusack) is shown to be a broken, confused man under the unconventional care of his therapist Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). After meeting Cadillac saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), she is determined to save Wilson from Landy's manipulation. Directed by Bill Pohlad (the Oscar-winning producer of "12 Years A Slave") and co-written by Michael Alan Lerner, "Love and Mercy" is a well-fashioned, unconventional and warts-and-all musical biopic that's superbly acted by Dano as the younger Wilson and especially by Cusack as the older, well-worn Wilson. It provides a striking dichotomy between the two periods to highlight how much Wilson changed and many of the problems he had, and how the presence of a stern, douchey father and a crazy therapist (played well by Giamatti) impacted him and his music. Most fascinating, unsurprisingly, is Wilson's musical career and how the film is able to immerse you in the behind-the-scenes construction of his albums, and it's peppered generously with the familiar Beach Boys/Wilson tunes that you'll hum along with, and some engaging scenes in the studio that shows how Wilson did it all. The movie seems to skim over his psychological problems, and the film doesn't provide much insight into his family, given the focus is on his later life, and it's clear to see his second wife Melinda's influence over the film (Banks is a lovely presence in the movie). The film has sensitive, pensive sheen to it and "Love and Mercy" would be a lot more depressing without the music; the filmmakers are remarkably fair and restrained when it comes to Wilson's life, but it's still a gripping portrait of a musical genius whose music still resonates to this day.