Williams himself provides voiceover narration to tell his own story. The highlights include how his father instilled in him a love for music; the formation of boy band Take That and its subsequent worldwide success; his ill-fated romance with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno); the substance abuse problem that forced him to hit rock bottom; and the eventual effort to become, as the title infers, a better man.
The monkey idea isn’t just a gimmick. It works because, as the movie’s subject points out, there was “Robbie Williams” and then there was Robert Williams. Robbie was in many regards a character, a public persona crafted and embellished to please the fans, who couldn’t get enough of his bad boy image. Robert Williams, on the other hand, was the shy, sensitive person inside the performer. Depicting Williams as a monkey drives home the idea that what the world saw was a creation.
On a deeper level, the conceit allows director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) to be free of realism. He can instead present a series of visually spectacular sequences that get at deeper truths about Robbie Williams’ experience. The intensity of the Robbie/Nicole relationship is presented via a spontaneous, sultry Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-type dance on the deck of a huge yacht, intercut with ups and downs from their union. Robbie’s rush from fame is presented as an elaborate song-and-dance number weaving in and out of shops on the streets of London. His battle with crippling self-doubt is shown as a literal to-the-death fight with heckling simians. Aside from being exhilarating to watch, these scenes go a long way toward conveying emotion. We vicariously feel what he feels.
The unique approach of Better Man gets to the heart of the man at its center. The hedonism that often accompanies fame is captured as well as it’s ever been onscreen, to the point where you understand its addictive nature. Similarly, the way fame can eat a person up becomes more palpable. Like Williams himself, the film has a wicked sense of humor about itself, so even the darkest of moments possess a cheeky quality.
For all its pleasures, the movie stumbles during the conclusion, which is handled in a somewhat corny manner. Admittedly, the point is that we’re seeing the real Robbie Williams finally emerge – and he is kind of corny and sentimental. Coming on the heels of so much extravagance, the wrap-up still feels slightly anticlimactic. That minor caveat aside, Better Man is an energetic, entertaining, and trippy biopic that can be enjoyed regardless of your familiarity with Robbie Williams.
out of four
Better Man is rated R for drug use, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity, and some violent content. The running time is 2 hours and 14 minutes.
© 2025 Mike McGranaghan