It's no secret that with the plethora of biopics we get every year, there is a formula that many of them follow. Just last year, we got to see the stories of a wayward soul who ventured out on a soul-cleansing journey through the mountains, a computer genius who cracked a presumably unbreakable code during war times, one of the deadliest snipers in American history, and one of funk's greatest musicians told on film. Bill Pohland's "Love & Mercy," concerning the life of Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson, is bound to be written off by some as another interchangeable biopic, but if you've seen so much as a trailer for this film, you know this is something deeper, richer, and more complex than formula could ever begin to handle.

"Love & Mercy" focuses on two times pieced together, as Pohland and the writing team of Michael Alan Lerner and Oren Moverman segway between the "past" Brian Wilson, played by Paul Dano, and the "future" Brian Wilson, played by John Cusack, never telling us exactly where the present lies. We follow Wilson during his rise with his brothers and friends to make The Beach Boys one of America's most successful boy bands in the 1960's. Despite initial success with The Beach Boys, following a severe panic attack, Wilson resigns from the band to focus on writing back home in California. He's convinced he has found the formula for "the greatest rock album ever," experimenting with a plethora of different melodies, instruments, and lyrics to create something one can not only hear and enjoy, but feel.

While undergoing this arduous process, Wilson is met with little vocal support. He receives the casual head nods from most of his bandmates, with the exception of Michael Love (Jake Abel),who constantly criticizes his creative decisions, and his father, who is still bitter after being fired by his own son. While focusing on this, we frequently jump into Brian's life in the future, where he is placed under the care of Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti in another brutal but compelling role),who over-medicates and physically and mentally abuses him. Brian winds up meeting and falling for a Cadillac saleswoman named Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks),who constantly wants to be with him but finds Dr. Landy to be a smothering force preventing their connection from growing.

Pohland's experimental structure for "Love & Mercy" is nothing shy of remarkable, but the fact that it doesn't make the film feel off balance or tonally uneven is a total cinematic anomaly. While frequently weaving through different time periods seems ripe for complete chaos for a film trying to keep a consistent tone, "Love & Mercy" handles the challenge beautifully, humanizing Brian regardless of his age and working to find the core idea in each scene.

I've long asserted that Paul Dano is one of the finest actors in cinema today and "Love & Mercy" is another link in his ever-growing chain of terrific performances. Similar to his role in "Prisoners," Dano must remain relatively expressionless and look as if nothing is occurring inside his head, when really, there is too much going on in his head to accurately communicate. Dano, once again, blindsides the audience by taking a role that seems too facile to carry a film and making it a fleshed out, thoroughly impressive performance. John Cusack also delivers a role much like Dano, channeling his kind of emptiness so well that it's like watching two actors in different time periods of their life playing a character in different time periods of his own life. The result is a mesmerizing, surreal experience.

"Love & Mercy"'s vignette-style structure examines the heartbreak, the joy, the contentment, and the unmatched physical and mental pressure of Brian in a remarkably tender way. Robert Yeoman's cinematography also paints a picture that, while littered with nostalgia in look, costume design, and general vibes, captures Brian's hectic environment so affectionately that it becomes strangely beautiful. Through all of Brian's madness, his unpredictable panic attacks, episodes of rage, and the contemptuous relationship with his father, Pohland searches to find attributes of Brian to showcase in a way that's impacting.

Calling "Love & Mercy" a "mesmerizing, surreal experience" is an appropriate, if ostensibly exaggerating, summation. Similar to how Brian can't always communicate the beauty behind the sound of his music, I can't quite put my finger on what works with this film and in what manner. This film, however, snuck up on me in a way that was remarkably subtle but lasting and, even though it's been several days since I've seen it, the effect remains strong in a way that only enhances the film's compelling and unique aura.

This film is about Brian Wilson of "Beach Boy" fame and focuses, in particular, on his mental health struggle and his sick relationship with Dr. Eugene Landy. While the film doesn't say it, it does imply that Wilson's long struggle with debilitating mental illness was the combination of his sick childhood (with an emotionally abusive father),psychedelic drugs, real organic mental illness AND, most importantly, the abusive treatment and over-prescription of pills by the man who was SUPPOSED to be making him better but who used and abused him. It all makes for a very moving and sad tale, as the leading character played in the movie didn't seem malevolent but was more like a lost child looking for a sense of direction and love.

To do this story, the filmmakers did a couple things that were unusual. First, the story is completely non-linear and bounces back and forth from a young Brian to a much older Brian. I assume this bounciness was used to emphasize how Brian's thinking was erratic and disjoint. Secondly, and this was really odd, two different actors played Brian! Young Brian was played by Paul Dano--and he really looked a lot like the actual singer. Older Brian was played capably by John Cusack--a guy who, to me, seemed very unlike Wilson. While it all was very unusual, it worked very well and you could tell that the folks making this movie saw it as a labor of love-- such as getting the look and sound of the Beach Boys down pat.

This is a very interesting and amazingly sad film. The only complaint I have is that so much of the story is missing--such as HOW he finally got away from Dr. Landy as well as Landy's life following his being (only briefly) stripped of his license. Some is alluded to in an epilogue which is pasted on the screen at the end. Sadly, Landy soon began practicing again and continued until his death a few years ago.

One thing I REALLY liked about the film was during the final credits they showed the actual Brian Wilson singing one of his new songs. WOW did he look great--a HUGE improvement over a decade or two ago when he just looked crazy and depressed. It's good to see the improvement and I wish him the best. As for Landy, if everything in the film is true, I hope he's burning in Hell.

Finally, if you do watch this film, you might want to have some tissues handy. As the film ended I found myself crying...crying because of the wasted years for Wilson. It's all so very sad but, fortunately, a story with a happy ending.

By the way, if you get the DVD, take a look at a couple of the special features. I loved hearing the costume and set designers and all the subtle things they did to heighten the story. I also really agree when the director said that there was so much material that it could have been a mini-series (and this would explain the way then ended the film). Really neat stuff!

I'm trusting that this is an accurate portrayal of a tragic drift into psychosis. Brian Wilson who really is/was the Beach Boys heard voices. Some drove him to his knees; others helped him write some really great music. There's a place where he is asked by his brother if he thinks he is Mozart. Had he been writing in that time period, he may have been another Mozart. Rising out of the repression of his father, Brian never felt good enough. He sought approval from the worst of sources. He also made the boys so successful, with huge amounts of money coming in. But like the true artist, he finally found the sound stale and futureless. As his self esteem waned more and more, he fell under the control of an over bearing, ambitious doctor. This man not only misdiagnosed him, he put him on a regimen of dangerous drugs. During his later years, Brian (now played by John Cusack) meets a beautiful woman at a car dealership. He is buying a car and is immediately attracted to her. They begin a weird relationship as she hangs on to him when he is at his weirdest. He continues to be abused by his doctor and a whole series of events occur. There is an excellent flipping back and forth between the young and old Brian Wilson as we are made privy to what he dealt with because of his gifts. My favorite scenes were in the studio when he would insist on thirty or forty takes to get things just so. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang rolled their eyes and pounded their fists. Having grown up with these guys, this was an eye opener. Well done.