Review: Robbie Williams Biopic 'Better Man' is a Wild Good Time

"Greatest Showman" director Michael Gracey helms the new Robbie Williams biopic "Better Man," and his frothy visual style kicks the film into a colorful, kinetic stratosphere. In the previous film, Gracey synchronized laundry blowing back and forth on a line for a rooftop dance sequence; here, he mounts a show-stopping dance number filled with casual comic violence (car crashes, people clocked by doors and soccer balls) in which mobility scooters serve as dance partners in a flawlessly coordinated, and epically gonzo, set piece.

That's only one example of the wild abandon (and yet, precise execution) "Better Man" makes its brand. The film is already famous for depicting Williams as a CGI monkey (with actor Jonno Davies doing amazingly emotional work with the screen capture process, as well as providing the character of "Robbie Williams" with his speaking voice), but that's only the start of the movie's astounding visual achievements.

The closer you look, the more cleverness you see. The editing scheme alone is a marvel, reflecting Williams' restless ambition with sudden scene transitions that come out of nowhere and transport Williams from a fall down a stairwell to a collapse on stage during a concert, or from a lonely re-enactment of his father's performance of Sinatra's "My Way" to an imagined duet that's filled with yearning for some paternal affection.

That moment, and plenty of others focused on Williams' relationship with his absentee dad, is also a reminder of one of Williams' primary motivations. Not only does this kid – who shot to fame at the age of 15 when he became a member of the boy band Take That – have "a hole in [his] soul" that only fame can fill (as the film's first song tells us), but his dad (Steve Pemberton) looms large in his pantheon of all-time great singers. No matter how much he accomplishes (or how low he falls), Williams hungers to hear his father express a little pride in him.

The movie is so CGI-heavy that it sometimes looks like a cartoon. But it also portrays Williams-as-monkey so realistically (and Davies is so charismatic despite the CGI dress-up) that you often forget you're looking at a metaphorical depiction – the way Williams sees himself, as he explains in the film's opening moments – and you go along for the ride.

That's no mean feat, considering how exciting and emotionally stirring the movie is at its best moments. That includes episodes of intense self-doubt that forever pit the evolving Williams against an ever-growing catalogue of self-doubts. The character has a number of distinct looks throughout the movie, and the striking differences in clothing and hairstyles help us relate to the moments of failure in Williams' past that crop up to taunt him again and again, personified as earlier versions of himself. It's an effective shorthand for the deeply embedded fear of being "a nobody" that torments Williams.

"Better Man" is unapologetic about its hallucinogenic sensibilities. This film is, after all, showing us Williams' internal vision of himself and his life; not just his perspective on otherwise objective reality. We can't understand the depths of his ugliness, his shame, his love, or his drive without the sort of over-the-top energy that percolates in every scene. It's no surprise that, on top of everything else, this is a musical, featuring a number of Williams-written songs.

In another apt choice, the film's coarse, English-working-class language and sensibilities offset the essential elegance of Williams' true oeuvre. He calls it "cabaret," but it's rooted in a love of the American songbook and a tradition of singing and affect that goes along with it. There's a delicious frisson (and boundless energy) that springs from the film's dual nature when the slick elegance of a well-tailored tux or the bouncy, buoyant choreography of a big dance number collides with a grotty episode of dance club sex, a jealousy-driven domestic spat with wife and fellow pop star Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), or Williams' inflated ego being punctured by losses of family, friends, and career opportunities.

The man, the monkey, and the movie lean into everything – success and failure; joy and heartbreak; rapture and ugliness – in order to paint a full picture of what it means, and what it takes to be, an entertainer. As Williams hears at a crucial turning point, "A song is only good if it costs you something." A career as a singer, therefore, is liable to cost you everything. Even so, the film's Williams (and the real Williams, or so we hope) finds his way to happiness... and a final, fitting, and very working-class-English valediction.

"Better Man" opens in wide release Jan. 10.