A tale of two Brian Wilsons in 'Love & Mercy' trailer

Posted Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 4:56 PM Central

by John Couture

If you recall back to last month, Tim singled out the film Love & Mercy as one of those potential sleeper hits for 2015. At the time, all he had to go on was a strong cast and a shot of Paul Dano looking like a dead ringer for the young rock legend.

A month later, the first trailer just dropped and I realized that I really don't know anything about The Beach Boys or Brian Wilson. I do know that my parents were pretty big fans so I grew up with their music in a way, but I was too young to really understand anything else that was going on with the group or Brian Wilson himself.

Apparently, like many musical icons, he suffered from mental health issues that were so serious they forced him to part ways with the band he helped to put on the map. This is all new to me, when I hear The Beach Boys, I immediately think of Summer and good times and the familiar warmth of being a young child growing up in the 1970s.

As you can see from the trailer below, there was a lot more going on than simply good times music. One of the things from the trailer that bothered Tim was the fact that Paul Dano and John Cusack were both playing Brian Wilson, albeit at much different times in his life.

For me, the use of two actors doesn't bother me too much as it's just a testament to the ravages of mental health disorders. There's no denying that Brian Wilson himself barely resembles the pictures of himself during the heyday of The Beach Boys.

What do you think? Love & Mercy will be in theaters on June 5.