27 December 2024
This is a novel movie biography and no mistake! Robbie Williams is executive producer on this candid look at the toxic force of envy that drove his musical career from Take That to one of the biggest solo stars in the world, but turned a talented musician into a deeply unhappy man. And he’s played by a monkey. Or rather it’s actor Jonno Davies plus motion capture wizardry perfected on the Planet of the Apes reboot and Williams himself supplying the voiceover. Throw in the flashy visual flourishes of The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey and the results are animal magic!
Neither hagiography nor hatchet job, Robbie starts his journey on the rain-spattered streets of Stoke on Trent as Robert, a cocky, working-class kid (or chimp, in his own eyes) who “came out of the womb with jazz hands”, failed all his school examinations and then spent a lifetime in a desperate need to please his fame-obsessed, showboating absent father (Steve Pemberton – excellent), a low rent singer and MC obsessed with the Rat Pack, who sings “My Way” in working men’s clubs.
Robert claims that Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith (‘a cunt’) renaming him Robbie for the group’s launch was the best present because it gave him a character/persona to hide behind. NMS also has one of the best lines said to the Take That boys in the same scene: “In 5 years we are all going to hate each other but we are going to be filthy rich”.
Brilliant choreographer Ashley Wallen has created several epic, jaw-dropping dreamlike musical sequences, with a flash mob of hundreds erupting on Regent Street to the sound of the Williams hit “Rock DJ,” stunningly captured by Erik Wilson’s sweeping camera; and a gorgeously romantic shipboard rendition of “She’s the One,” as Williams meets his future fiancée, All Saints girl-band singer Nicole Appleton (Home & Away’s Raechelle Banno). Recreated concert sequences, including Robbie’s solo gig at Knebworth in front of 120,000 screaming fans, are never less than exhilarating.
Robbie sent the script to his band nemesis, Gary Barlow, who complained he comes off worse than Darth Vader in the first Star Wars film, but he’s actually played by Jake Simmance more as a prig with no time for anyone else’s input into songwriting. He dismisses Rob’s lyrics without reading them and we know from his later songs with Guy Chambers that Robbie is a budding Bernie Taupin.
Why portray Robbie as a monkey? It may seem stupid – but it’s utterly inspired.
The film is constantly self-flagellating, but remarkably, Williams never comes across as self-pitying. His cheeky voice-over, along with the vivacity of Jonno Davies’s performance as his adult avatar, and the sheer verve of Gracey’s filmmaking ensure a tone that’s rarely less than exuberant.
It is ridiculously enjoyable.
