Maestro – 4

Hard to decide what bothered me more: the bizarre accents and clipped, unintelligible dialogue from Bradley Cooper, especially, and Carey Mulligan; the characters’, especially Cooper’s, obsessive smoking; or the lack of a plot. Rather than care for Lenny Bernstein, I couldn’t wait for this unpleasant person to get off the screen. Sarah Silverman, on the other hand, I liked. I admit to a personal dislike of gratuitous smoking in movies; here there was only one scene in which Cooper wasn’t lighting up: conducting his Mass in a cathedral. The rest of the time, even when conducting, a cigarette was in his mouth or his hand, to dramatic detriment not effect. A very unenjoyable two hours.