Though he never had the cross-Atlantic success of rivals Oasis or a stateside post-boy band solo career à la Ricky Martin coming out of Menudo, Robbie Williams was a massive pop star at a time when Britpop was all the rage.

Cherry-picked by Nigel Martin-Smith from lines of eager young men who dreamt of the spotlight, Williams went from singing and dancing in Take That to amassing fame and fortune as a solo act. In 2003, Williams played three concerts at Knebworth to a crowd of 125,000 per night. American football stadiums don’t hold that many people. And, of course, he pissed it all away on drugs and drink and ego.

That part of the story you either know or can guess. (That side never goes out of style.) Nor are the roots of Freudian daddy issues, the hollowness of fame, or the surprising amount of drugs one can ingest if they just put their mind to it. But what makes Better Man, directed by Michael Gracey and based on William’s life story, different is not the rise, fall, and redemption narrative but how it’s told. Here, Williams is not played by an actor interpreting Williams. Here, Williams is played by a CGI chimpanzee.

Williams provides the voice (a nice touch), and Jonno Davies is the man in the motion capture suit. The results are impressive. Chimp Williams is expressive and has life-like movements that feel like he inhabits the same physical space as the other actors. And the monkey aspect does add a dimension to the proceedings that would come off like an extended episode of VH1’s Behind the Music if it didn’t.

But the monkey conceit is also what derails Better Man as the movie crests the halfway point. It’s not easy feeling sympathy for people who have everything and throw it away for drugs and drink, especially those who do it with such arrogance and calculation. But we do because we are human, and to see another hurting hurts us, too. It’s why these stories work, even when the performance is poor, or the catharsis is cheap. But in almost all of those movies, we are watching a person go through hell. We connect with the human face at the center of the storm. But here, it’s not the face of Williams or an actor we’re asked to connect and empathize with, but that of a CGI chimp.

Let’s step outside the frame for a minute and wonder: Is Better Man the tip of the A.I. spear? This is William’s story, and you are hearing William’s voice throughout. That’s the human component of the equation. But can all that human information imbue something that is not? Google’s Gemini draws on human information and creates the experience of talking to a human. But it’s not. When we ask Gemini a question, should we treat it with the same respect, its answer with the same gratitude, as if we were asking a friend? Can we feel the same pain for Williams, the person, if what we’re looking at isn’t a person at all?

We do it all the time in other movies, particularly animation, but Better Man feels different. Could that be because Williams as a monkey is never once commented on or explained in the movie’s narrative? That’s a brave decision on Gracey’s part and one that’s bound to raise some questions from audiences. (And probably why Paramount’s trailer opens with archival footage of Williams giving a brief explanation as to why you’ll be watching a digital monkey and not him for the next two hours.)

What a weird movie Better Man is. It might not be the best movie you’ll see this month, but I bet you’ll be thinking about this one long after forgetting the others.

Better Man (2024)
Directed by Michael Gracey
Screenplay by Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole, Michael Gracey
Based on the life story of Robbie Williams
Produced by Paul Currie, Jules Daly, Michael Gracey, Coco Xiaolu Ma
Starring: Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Steve Pemberton, Alison Steadman, Kate Mulvany
Paramount Pictures, Rated R, Running time 134 minutes, Premiered Aug. 30, 2024 at the Telluride Film Festival

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