“Maestro” captures the depth of a complicated human

When “Patton” arrived in 1970, filmgoers were fascinated.
Here was the rare movie biography that captured someone’s real depth. There were parts of Gen. George Patton we could love or hate, envy or pity. He was – like many people, especially those at the top – a complicated human being.
“Patton” was rewarded with seven Academy Awards, including best picture, screenplay (co-written by Francis Coppola) and actor. Now the same thing might happen to “Maestro,” which arrived Wednesday on Netflix, after a brief run in theaters.
Bradley Cooper – who directed, co-wrote and stars as Leonard Bernstein – signals that with a Bernstein quote at the start: “A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them, and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”
Bernstein’s contradictions were enormous, including the prevailing one, his bisexuality.
His marriage was no sham, we’re told. He loved his wife Felicia, emotionally and physically. He loved their three children. But Felicia knew from the start that he would also have sex with men; her gripe was merely that he was getting careless and open about it.
But there were many other complications, the film said. Bernstein loved people and was obsessed with being surrounded by them. But he would unknowingly steal the attention from everyone else. He would also rob himself of the time and the calmness that a genius needs to create.
Before he turned 40, Bernstein had written (with Stephen Sondheim) perhaps the greatest musical-theater score of all, “West Side Story.” It was his fifth full musical on Broadway; he would only have one more (“1600 Pennsylvania Avenue”) and it only ran for a week.
There can be a lot of reasons for that, of course.
Some people – from J.D. Salinger to Bobbie Gentry – have exactly one great work percolating. Others simply become too busy to do more. Bernstein, more than others, was in perpetual motion – conducting, doing TV lectures, writing three symphonies, a Mass and more. But we get the feeling that at times he simply could not get himself to sit alone, in a quiet room, and create.
In modern times, someone might call this attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and maybe adjust his already prodigious pill intake. We also might counsel him to skip cocaine and all those cigarettes, so he could live far longer than his 72 years. Most importantly, we would let him be open about his bisexuality, taking one concern off his overcrowded mind.
But the Bernstein who emerged was still crucial for his time. He brought joy to classical music on TV … something Gustavo Dudamel does now and will do even more when he takes over Bernstein’s old domain (the New York Philharmonic) in 2026. He brought “West Side Story” to the world. And he brought an unending passion for civil rights and social justice.
“Maestro” doesn’t even mention the civil rights … or many other things. Given a story too large for one movie (or for one life), it focuses sharply on one part – the deep and complicated emotions of a man who loved his wife deeply and also loved lots of others.
It’s a huge story that was captured perfectly by Cooper and Carey Mulligan. She could easily get an Academy Award … just as Lady Gaga did when starring in Cooper’s “A Star is Born.”
Cooper has had nine Oscar nominations, but no wins. Now he could win for actor … or director … or screenwriter … or all of them.
This is a guy who has a talent that’s similar to Leonard Bernstein’s, but on a slightly smaller scale. Everyone, it seems, is smaller than Bernstein.