“Better Man” is another typical musician biography drama film with one notable difference. While it is surely filled with predictable ups and downs as illustrating the life and career of British musician Robbie Williams, the movie presents Williams as a talking ape, and that somehow makes sense considering how wild and immature he often was throughout his bumpy career.

I must point out that this odd storytelling choice is rather distracting at first. Sure, thanks to its recently Oscar-nominated special effects, our monkey hero in the film looks as realistic as those ape characters in the recent Planet of the Apes movies (The latest one also got Oscar-nominated in the same category in last month, by the way), but this is basically a one-joke setting quickly getting thin within the first 30 minutes. To be frank with you, I often found myself being more aware of the technical efforts behind it, instead of focusing on a real character to observe.

Fortunately, the movie has enough wit and spirit to keep things rolling during its rather long running time (135 minutes) thanks to the competent direction of director/co-writer/co-producer Michael Gracey, who previously made “The Greatest Showman” (2017). Whenever the movie shifts its gear onto musical mode, it becomes quite electrifying to say the least, and it does not mind going for more style and entertainment at all with its CGI monkey hero at the center.

The story itself begins with the childhood years of Williams, who is presented as a young monkey kid voiced by Carter J. Murphy during this part. Influenced a lot by his father’s enthusiasm toward music, young Williams aspires to become a famous musician someday, and he later shows considerable potential as a future entertainer when he manages to steal the show in the middle of a stage production hosted by his father.

Around the time when he becomes an adolescent monkey boy, Williams is more determined to realize his ambitious dream someday. When he hears about the audition for the members for a new boy band, he does not hesitate at all, and, what do you know, he leaves enough impression on Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Harriman), who eventually becomes the manager for Williams and several other young musicians who come to form the band together.

What follows next is how Williams and his colleagues struggle a lot during the next several years. At first, they mostly perform at many gay nightclubs, and, though he is not gay, Williams feels quite liberated by the sense of freedom and acceptance from those gay nightclubs. In the end, he and his colleagues also begin to perform in front of young girls, and they soon come to have a lot of fans after they record a number of popular songs.

Of course, around that point, Williams begins to tumble toward the bottom of addiction as getting intoxicated with his big success and fame, and it does not take much time for others around him to see what a big trouble he has become. For example, when they are about to do another big concert in front of thousands of fans out there, Williams becomes almost unconscious due to his heavily drugged state, and it is rather amazing that he manages to perform fairly well on the stage not long after that.

As getting more troubled due to his addiction as well as his growing insecurity, Williams subsequently gets pushed out from the band, and that is when he comes across Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), a young woman who is also the member of a popular girl band. As they quickly get fallen in love with each other, it seems that Williams will bounce from the bottom of his career, but he still has a lot of personal issues to deal with, and he also comes to break his girlfriend’s heart a lot because of his frequent acts of infidelity (Yes, there are a few brief moments in the film showing our monkey hero having a sexual intercourse with one woman or more than that).

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our monkey hero eventually finds himself at another bottom of his life and career, and that is where the movie becomes more serious than before. Although we cannot be totally serious about our monkey hero, his dramatic arc along the story works to some degree thanks to the good performance of Jonno Davies, who did a commendable job of preventing his character from becoming a mere CGI stunt in addition to deftly handling several song and dance moments in the film. Besides providing his songs, Williams himself is funny and acerbic in his narration, and several other main cast members including Steve Pemberton, Kate Mulvany, Alison Steadman, Damon Herriman, and Raechelle Banno dutifully fill their respective spots despite their rather clichéd supporting roles.

In conclusion, “Better Man” does not bring anything new to its genre territory except its CGI monkey hero, but it has enough energy and interest to compensate for a number of notable weak aspects including its predictable story and thin characterization. Although it does not reach to the level of several better musician biography drama films such as “Ray” (2004) or “La Vie En Rose” (2007), it is as amusing as, say, “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” (2007) at least, and you will certainly never forget its monkey hero for a while at least.