Behemoth is almost impossible to pin down. Writer-director Tony Gilroy, known for Michael Clayton and Star Wars: Rogue One respectively, has shaped a symphonic family melodrama from within the confines of an orchestra pit. One situated on Hollywood soundstages, where Alex Serian has carved out his career playing cello. That Gilroy would choose Pedro Pascal for this performance feels inspired, since his profile has been on an upward trajectory for years now.
Following recent turns in Materialists, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and Fantastic Four: First Steps for Marvel, Pascal has quickly joined the upper echelons of A-list royalty. He has also become an unlikely sex symbol in the process, doubling his currency in an industry that hinges so much on public profile. However, what Pascal does in Behemoth does more than trade on those characteristics.
With a narrative split across multiple timelines, Tony Gilroy unpacks a story of paternal pride, artistic insecurity, and family trauma. One that is held together by different composers working in unison to weave music between the cracks, giving Behemoth a fluidity that relies on orchestral interventions as much as dramatic performance. Revealing a different side to Pedro Pascal that gives him an enigmatic quality akin to actors from Hollywood’s golden age.
Image Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures & LFF
With an ensemble cast including Will Arnett and writer-director Olivia Wilde, best known for her film The Invite, Tony Gilroy has made sure to surround Pedro Pascal with solid support. As his brother and ex-lover respectively, both Wilde and Arnett give Behemoth substance beyond the musical digressions. Adding unexpected layers without drifting into cliche or chewing scenery and mining a rich vein of dark comedy that often comes from leftfield.
Matthew Lillard, familiar from Disney’s Daredevil: Born Again, and the eponymous Hank Azaria also throw a spanner or two in the works, offering up emotional obstacles within a film that often feels intentionally ambiguous. However, fans of Pedro Pascal or anyone after something more conventional might find themselves up against it with Behemoth. Tony Gilroy might have given them a tale of philandering infidelity and paternal misgivings, but gleaning that will require effort.
Heavy lifting aside, for cinephiles and fans of this writer-director it will still feel like a homecoming, laced with sonorous segues that celebrate cinema in ways that go beyond orchestra pits. Darkly comic in unexpected ways and swept along on instrumental accompaniments that create another character, Behemoth will bewitch those prepared to surrender.
They will forgive the ambiguity and find fulfilment in narrative twists that offer no obvious answers. Audiences will join Alex willingly as he forges his path through this film, stumbling on idiosyncratic coincidences and connecting dots as everything becomes clear. This may not be Michael Clayton, but Pedro Pascal gives a performance to stand alongside George Clooney that is simultaneously low-key yet conceals complexity in plain sight. Not only a magic trick almost impossible to pull off in cinema, but one guaranteed to create debate after those credits roll.
Behemoth is in UK cinemas from Dec 4.