When movie fans sit down to watch a film, they generally have certain expectations in mind, especially when it comes to subjects and individuals whom they think they already know. That’s particularly true when it comes to releases about high-profile public figures, like celebrities and rock stars. However, when those expectations go unmet, audience members may react with surprise, confusion or disappointment. Such is the case for many with the new film biography of rock icon Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White). This is not the prototypical celebrity hearty-partying, glitzy, glamorous biopic that many viewers have come to expect out of titles in this genre. Rather, it’s a mostly somber, introspective look at the musician during a troubling period in his life and career, a time in the early 1980s when he was learning to cope with success, establish himself as an artist and deal with the ghosts of his past, particularly his relationship with his abusive, neglectful and often-distant father (Stephen Graham). It was a time when he was working on the album Nebraska, a dark and sobering collection of songs that marked a radical departure from the high-energy pop sound he had established on previous LPs. It was also an album that reflected his inner self and the emotional struggles he was going through at the time, one that he wanted to capture those feelings, in part as a work of art and in part as a form of therapy to express himself. And, in creating this album, he wanted it to be raw and unembellished, both in the music, in the way it was recorded and in the way it would be marketed, with no singles, no tour and no press, concerns that troubled his label and his manager (Jeremy Strong). This process also strained relations with his budding romantic interest at the time (Odessa Young), a woman he adored but for whom he was uncertain he could bring to their partnership what he believed was needed to make it work, a reflection of the self-image issues with which he was wrestling. In essence, then, this is more of a movie about depression and mental health matters than it is about the music per se, a noble undertaking, to be sure. But, to a great extent, that’s also where the picture comes up short due to its inability to wrap its arms around that topic as clearly and effectively as it might have, thereby underwhelming the expectations of those hoping that this film would shed valuable light on this subject. To that end, then, “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” fails to fulfill the expectations of both those looking for a rock icon biopic and those looking for an insightful take on serious mental health issues, particularly in terms of how they can even affect someone who might otherwise be seen as having it made in life. Granted, the film features fine performances from its cast members, including in the re-created musical sequences, but, thematically speaking, it never quite reaches the depths for which it strives and by becoming somewhat repetitive in its inability to achieve its hoped-for level of profound introspection. Writer-director Scott Cooper appears to have good intentions behind what he’s trying to do here but doesn’t seem up to the challenge of actually pulling it off. One could more aptly title this film as “Darkness on the Edge of Bruce,” but, regrettably, it tends to hover on the edge of things and never gets past the boundaries that this story seeks to strip away.
