We watched “Maestro” last night - the Leonard Bernstein biopic. It’s streaming free on Netflix (free assuming you pay the monthly Netflix fee), surprisingly early for a contender film, I would think. And it is getting a lot of attention.

Did I like the film? Not really. Why? Because it isn’t at all uplifting, and I wanted it to be. Yet, I have to temper my reaction because I thought, as we were watching it, that the film must have made Bernstein’s three children very uncomfortable. But then I have read that they really liked the film, that they think that Bradley Cooper really got the essence of their father and that he spent a lot of time with them and asked them a lot of questions, and that Jamie Bernstein, the oldest of the three, wrote a book about her parents’ marriage and that several of the film’s scenes are based on her book.

My other reaction, when watching the film, was that Bradley Cooper, who looks nothing like Leonard Bernstein, looked so much like Leonard Bernstein. I didn’t mind at all his controversial fake nose. What surprised me were his intensive light blue eyes? I’ve looked at photos of the real Leonard Bernstein, and I don’t see that color. But it is easy to tint eyes in a film, and if Bernstein’s eyes weren’t so blue, why did Cooper (Cooper the actor, Cooper the writer, Cooper the director, or Cooper the producer) keep his eyes that color?

The film primarily is a film about Bernstein’s marriage to his wife, Felicia, and how Felicia coped with Bernstein’s gay extramarital affairs. The movie portrays Felicia as the only woman in Bernstein’s life (at least there is no hint of any others), but shows Bernstein to have had same sex affairs, largely with fellow musicians it appears, both before and during his marriage. Yet, strangely, you don’t learn much about these affairs – what exactly were they? They aren’t depicted, only really hinted at, in the film. Yet the film turns on them.

There’s been a lot of criticism of the film as downplaying Bernstein’s music. I think that is valid criticism, although it is filled with excerpts of musical performances – from On the Town and Candide to Mahler to Bernstein’s own Mass. So it’s not that the film lacks music, it’s that the film doesn’t really connect Bernstein the husband/lover to Bernstein the musician. You don’t see Leonard Bernstein plying his trade; the music just appears, seemingly having little to do with his real life story. 

Yes, you learn about the volatility of his relationship with his wife – the good times, and the bad times, and – at the end – the sad times (Felicia died of cancer only at age 56). But everything else is just in the background. What you want to do is sit down with Leonard and say: So how did you spend your day? And by the way, the same can be said about Felicia – Felicia clearly had more to life than being married to her husband. She was a actress, and you see that, but she was a very active political activist. That you wouldn’t know from “Maestro”.

Leonard Bernstein was a musical genius. But how did his genius develop? (He had a troubling relationship with his father, who was very much against his son following a musical career. His famous quote: How was I to know that Leonard Bernstein would become Leonard Bernstein?) In the film, we meet a 25 year old musically fully developed Leonard Bernstein, who remains fully developed throughout the movie. We see no growth, no changes in emphasis. His musicianship is taken for granted and in effect all background.

Bernstein’s musical career was so unique – as a conductor, a classical composer, a composer of musical theater, a teacher and a personality, that you wish (at least I wish) that more of this was in the film. And having followed Bernstein somewhat over the years, I wish there was more of a lot of things in the film. But maybe that’s the problem. Bernstein was too special – you just can’t cover him in one film.

As an aside, I saw Leonard Bernstein in person only one time. I graduated Harvard in 1964. Bernstein had graduated 25 years earlier, in 1939. This meant that, when we went up to Cambridge for my 25th reunion, Bernstein was there for his 50th. Harvard (I guess it was Harvard) bought out Boston’s Symphony Hall for a special concert – the Boston Pops led by Leonard Bernstein – the audience being the Harvard reunion classes and their guests. I don’t remember what the program was, but what I remember is it was very festive and no one (i.e., me) knew anything about ruptures in what had been Bernstein’s marriage or about his same sex relationships. This was in June 1989. Another thing that none of us knew was that Bernstein would be dead within 16 months.

(Let’s end on a different note? Can you name the five largest states, by area, i the United States? You would think that would be easy – I went through the first four easily: Alaska, Texas, California, Montana. But what’s the fifth? Look it up.)