Maestro (2023) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Bradley Cooper

Starring:  Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Sarah Silverman, Matt Bomer

Maestro's whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.  It is technically marvelous while it suffers as a biopic of Leonard Bernstein, played by Cooper in an energetic performance in which his passion for Bernstein doesn't translate to a successful movie.   Bernstein was gay and married to actress Felicia Montealegre (Mulligan), who understood he was homosexual but loved him anyway.  Leonard loved Felicia as a companion and as the mother to his two children, but he was unable to suppress his desires for men even when Felicia chided him for not being discreet because homosexuality may ruin his career.  

Felicia seemed tolerant of Leonard's indiscretions until she wasn't.  By then, Bernstein had co-written West Side Story and became a world-famous conductor and composer.   Maestro is filmed in black and white in the early days of Leonard and Felicia's courtship, then becoming color as the decades wore on.  Cooper uses creative editing sweeps to suggest the passing of time as Leonard's relationship evolved.   However, many scenes drag on far too long with too much dialogue that grows tiresome.  And then there's the smoking.  Leonard and Felicia, if they aren't actively smoking a cigarette, are about to light one up.   This is so noticeable that it becomes distracting.   It is a relief to witness a rare scene in which the characters aren't smoking or even holding a cigarette.   Bernstein died in 1990 at age 72 due to complications from lung cancer.  It's a wonder he lived that long. 

If you came into Maestro not knowing who Leonard Bernstein was or why he was famous, the movie wouldn't be illuminating.  Maestro is more interested in Bernstein's personal life than his professional one, although Cooper throws his all into a six-minute conducting performance in which he gyrates and perspires to the point of nearly passing out.  Cooper has stated in interviews he learned about conducting and did his own in the movie.  I will accept on faith that Maestro knows what it's talking about when it comes to the conducting aspect.  It sure looks convincing.  

Maestro's strengths are the Cooper performance enveloped in superior cinematography, editing, and production values.  The movie is so well-made that I wish the story were as absorbing as how it's presented.  There was plenty of unwarranted controversy surrounding Cooper's use of a fake nose which more accurately resembled Bernstein's, but the movie's makeup, which shows us Bernstein's aging convincingly, is likely to win awards.   Cooper's use of an enhanced proboscis is hardly what's wrong about Maestro.  Felicia in real life was Chilean, but Mulligan is not.  Wait until the casting police get a hold of that tidbit of information.