Film Review: Maestro is far from a conventional hagiography for Leonard Bernstein

Music “enables me to become many things at once”, says Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) shortly after Maestro (15A) begins, and therein lies much of the tension that fuels his manic, mercurial personality.

An acclaimed conductor from the moment he steps in to conduct the New York Philharmonic without a rehearsal, Bernstein — whose compositions include West Side Story, On the Waterfront and Mass — is also a dedicated teacher of music, and a composer who differentiates between his ‘serious’ music and the kind he writes for musical theatre and the movies.

But if his professional life is complicated, his personal life is even more tangled: married to the actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), Bernstein conducts multiple affairs with men before and during their marriage.

Written by Josh Singer and Bradley Cooper, with Cooper directing, Maestro isn’t merely Leonard Bernstein’s story; Felicia is as important a character as her husband, and arguably the more interesting subject. 

No one’s fool, Felicia understands Leonard better than he understands himself, and Mulligan is excellent as she provides the quiet rhythm to their fascinating dynamic.

Cooper does the human whirlwind that was Bernstein full justice, complete with mega-watt charm and honey-dripping patter. 

Far from a conventional hagiography, Cooper offers a warts-and-all portrait, even going so far as to query the extent to which the composer betrayed his potential, and leaving it to the audience to decide the answer.