Perhaps the most highly anticipated film of the year might just be the most controversial one too. Bradley Cooper’s MAESTRO has finally been released and it may give the writer-director-producer the Oscar(s) he deserved in 2019 for A STAR IS BORN. That is, if the Academy’s voters can look past his character’s prosthetic nose.

MAESTRO tells the complicated love story of American musical conductor-composer, legend Leonard Bernstein, and his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn. Bernstein (Cooper, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES) gets his big break at the age of 25 when he is a last-minute substitution for New York Philharmonic guest conductor Bruno Walter, who had come down with the flu. He is an immediate sensation and is the toast of the classical music world. Even so, he still has one foot in musical theatre, collaborating with his friend, choreographer Jerome “Jerry” Robbins (Michael Urie, TV’s UGLY BETTY), on “Fancy Free”, a ballet about three young sailors during WWII who are on shore leave in New York City. (“Fancy Free” was later expanded to become the 1944 Broadway play “On the Town”. In 1949, it was adapted into a movie of the same name starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.) Although Bernstein was in a sexual relationship with clarinetist David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer, THE BOYS IN THE BAND; TV’s WHITE COLLAR) at the time, he meets and falls in love with Montealegre (Carey Mulligan, SALTBURN; PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN), who is a budding stage actress. Montealegre knows of Bernstein’s bisexuality (it wasn’t exactly a secret) but it isn’t a deal-breaker for her and the pair marry some years later. Over the years that follow, both their professional profiles grow in importance and popularity while they raise three children together but their marriage is fraught with challenges as Bernstein continues to take on male lovers.

Without a doubt, MAESTRO is a triumph and we should expect to see it nab a handful of Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Film Editing next month. Not to take anything away from Cooper and Mulligan, who are both superb, it’s Bernstein’s music and the editing that really shine here. Early on in the film, Lenny runs off with Felicia, and through a quick cut they arrive in a theatre where they watch the ballet sequence from “Fancy Free”. Between his musical score and Robbins’ choreography, it’s no wonder that “Our Town” became a Broadway smash. There are cinematic moments that will live on forever and this is one of them. In this version though, there’s a strong gay vibe to the dance, reflecting Lenny’s homosexual bent (watching it, I couldn’t help but think that Gene Kelly must be turning over in his grave right now) as well as Felicia’s own relationship with actor Richard Hart which ended with his death in 1951.

Some people, critics and not, have taken Cooper to task for not including Bernstein’s fundraising work, his commitment to the civil rights movement, his opposition to the war in Vietnam and so much more. Right. None of those are in this movie because that’s not what this movie is about. MAESTRO is not a four-hour rote biopic covering every aspect of Bernstein’s life. It is about his complicated relationship with Felicia. These people need to stop complaining about what this movie isn’t and just look at it for what it is.

I can’t leave this review without mentioning the elephant… er, nose in the room. When the first trailer for the film dropped a few months ago, the Internet was abuzz with talk about Cooper’s grandiose nose prosthetic. It didn’t take long for some of my brethren to scream, “Jewface!”, in reference to blackface, which was commonplace in movies and on stage not so many years ago. I was not one of those people and I chose to reserve judgment until I watched the movie. Now that I’ve seen the schnoz in all its moulded silicone glory, I don’t believe Cooper engaged in stereotyping or that he’s a secret member of the Kanye West Anti-Semite Club. (If he would be, how subversive would that be to make a movie about a Jew!) If you’ve seen old photos of Bernstein, you know that he had a big nose. Yes, he was a very handsome guy with great hair but the reality was that his nose arrived in a room a few minutes before the rest of him did. However, if you’ve also seen photos of Cooper, you know that his proboscis isn’t exactly tiny either so the question really becomes whether the prosthetic was necessary at all. I believe that this was simply an artistic choice by Cooper to get lost in the character and, quite honestly, after a few minutes, you don’t even notice it anymore. This is especially true in Bernstein’s latter years when both his nose and his face became fleshier. If Cooper was going to go the prosthetic nose route, sure, he could have had one that was slightly less outstanding. I don’t think Lenny’s nose was quite that big, or perhaps quite that droopy in his younger years. The bottom line, though, is that this chatter is a distraction to what is a great film.

MAESTRO is streaming now on Netflix. Even with the unfortunate artistic decision, it will end up in my list of favourite films of 2023.

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