John Cusack did a fantastic job in this role, I think this is his best performance ever (and he deserves an Oscar nomination)
I'm a fan of Paul Dano. I love this actor, but is anyone else not satisfied with his acting in this movie? I felt like he was overacting... he wasn't really convincing to me like he usually is.... does anyone agree?
Dano and Cusack each played Wilson in very different phases of his life. What I have read and watched in video clips is that each actor was very consistent with how Wilson was during each of those phases.
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If anything I thought he held back a little from what I understood of Brian Wilson's presence and personality in that period. He had a genuine, "aw shucks" bashfulness but was also quite dynamic and persuasive when it came to music and the studio.
I still think he and Cusack were both very, very good.
The difference between Cusack's Brian and Dano's Brian is authentic. It's intentional, as expressed in one of the voices Brian hears near the end of the film "You gotta get back to yourself!"
Remember that Cusack's Brian has gone through almost twenty years of depression, self medication, stress then overmedication and downright bullying by the time we see him in his '80s state.
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