Robbie Williams film Better Man could be the craziest music biopic ever

Better Man makes complete sense as a movie proposition. Music biopics are big business in the era of Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, and there aren't many British music icons bigger than Robbie Williams. All they had to do was find an actor to play Robbie, pen a script around his up-and-down career journey, and then watch the cash roll in when the movie debuts in UK cinemas on Boxing Day.

But that's not what Better Man is. Directed by The Greatest Showman's musical specialist Michael Gracey, the movie sounds like it's going to entirely up-end the biopic format, starting with the decision to portray Williams through the medium of a CGI ape.

Despite its very bizarre premise, critics were largely won over by Better Man after it premiered at film festivals this summer. IndieWire called it "electrifyingly demented" and Deadline hailed its "blazingly original" approach.

Meanwhile, the Popbitch gossip column claimed that American audiences were left "completely bemused" by a screening of an early cut in LA. They wrote: "It seems the cut of the film they were treated to contained no explanation whatsoever as to why Robbie is a monkey while the rest of the cast is entirely human."

So why the ape? In the trailer, Williams explains: "I'm one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but I've always seen myself less evolved." In his 2002 track Me and My Monkey, he used the idea of a monkey to represent the way he acted while at the worst of his drug addiction.

In a promotional chat with Williams, Gracey told the singer: "In your own words, you would refer to being dragged up on the stage to perform like a monkey... It immediately clicked in a way that I was like: 'With your voice and that monkey, I am going to see you and relate to you in a way that is going to be more engaging than yet another musical biopic'."

Deadline reported on the monkey idea way back in 2021, although Gracey kept his cards close to his chest until the film's premiere. "As for how we represent Robbie in the film, that bit is top secret," he told the trade publication. "I want to do this in a really original way. I remember going to the cinema as a kid and there were films that blew me away and made me say as I sat there in the cinema, 'I've never seen this before'. I just want the audience to have that feeling."

Peter Jackson's company Wētā FX worked on Better Man. Given their simian experience on Jackson's King Kong and the recent Planet of the Apes movies, they're a prime choice for a project like this. Gracey, too, has form given the fact he was a VFX artist before making the transition to directing.

Williams is playing himself with Jonno Davies as his younger counterpart, while Inside No. 9's Steve Pemberton will play the star's father. Kate Mulvany is portraying Williams' mother, while Gavin and Stacey star Alison Steadman will be his beloved grandma Betty.

Williams will perform several of his most famous songs in the movie, including in concert scenes filmed during some of the star's 2022 gigs at the Royal Albert Hall.

The genius of Robbie Williams is in his status as a pure showman. He has confessed in the past that he is neither the best singer or the best dancer around, but he is a truly electric performer possessed with immense on-stage charisma. It's no surprise in that case that he wants to do something truly different with the movie version of his story.

Read more: Robbie Williams Forced To Cut Parts Of Biopic Due To Legal Threats (HuffPost)

And let's face it, very few of us want to see a straightforward music biopic any more. In fact, the best example of the genre in recent years was 2022's Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, in which Daniel Radcliffe played the titular accordion enthusiast as a playboy badass who saved Madonna from the clutches of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

These music figures have lived their entire life in the spotlight, so it's refreshing to see them take a more inventive approach to telling their stories on the big screen. And if that means Robbie Williams is played by a CGI monkey in Better Man, sign me up for an opening day ticket. Merry Christmas to us all.

Better Man is in UK cinemas from 26 December.