@Courtesy of 20 Century Studios

The core of the story is simple and universal: a man in his early thirties is deeply haunted by the ghosts of his past, especially an abusive father figure who made his childhood a mix of joy and deep sorrow. After all those years he still doesn’t know how to deal with his pain, still incapable of facing it and moving over, still scared of building any meaningful human relationship and discovering he has the same inner demon that ruined his father. 

This man happens to be Bruce Springsteen. Adapting for the big screen the book Deliver Me From Nowhere by Warren Zanes, Scott Cooper explains how the seminal album Nebraska published in 1982 was conceived by Springsteen as a way to deal with his own internal struggle. The most precise adjective we can use to describe Cooper’s choices as a screenwriter and director is conventional. Which doesn’ t necessarily must be used in a negative meaning, but at the same time it must be recognized that “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” is exactly that kind of movie that you could have expected. The use of black and white for the flashbacks set in the ‘50 is the main example regarding Cooper’s decision to make this musical biopic “classic”, and the more we think about it, the more it seems clear that it couldn’t have been otherwise.

The setting, the environment, the atmosphere in which this story takes place is in fact very private, it almost doesn’t involve the world outside Springsteen’s hatred and beloved portion of New Jersey. It is the portrait of such a personal and intimate struggle that the very beginning of the movie is almost flat in the tone. The viewer can clearly understand what’s going on inside the artist’s mind, but it doesn’t truly participate in his struggle. And this is probably the reason why Cooper decided to set the birth of Born in the U.S.A. in the middle of his feature film: this is still today such a powerful song that immediately galvanizes the audience.

@Courtesy of 20 Century Studios

After that performance, you go way deeper inside the story and the main character on an emotional level, and the entire movie benefits from that at least until Springsteen decides to leave New Jersey and uses a road trip to move to California. At that point, Cooper demonstrates he doesn’ t truly know how to represent the protagonist’s crisis, making some really bad choices both as a director and screenwriter. Luckily Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere ends with a moving scene played by Jeremy Allen White and Stephen Graham that restores in many ways the necessary emotional connection. 

There are many ups and downs in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Likely too many. The decision to make the artist’s songs the complete center of the movie is bold, and in the end it pays off. On the other hand, the entire operation lacks originality, a strong point of view and capacity to make the protagonist larger than life. Since it’s Bruce Springsteen we are talking about, it is a quite important miss.

Talking about the cast, Jeremy Allen White is as always effective to make the viewer see the inner life of his character without giving away too much. His eyes in most of the scenes speak more than his dialogues, and that’s good. Must be said though that this kind of role isn’t that distant from Carmen from “The Bear” or the one he played in the admirable “The Iron Claw” by Sean Durkin. It wouldn’t be bad to see him in some other kind of characters. Next to him Stephen Graham and especially Jeremy Strong deliver strong performances, while Odessa Young doesn’t really make an impression on the movie itself. 

Despite the fact that here and there it delivers powerful moments, it is quite evident that Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere could have been a better movie. Scott Cooper has previously shown that, when it is about strong characters in dramatic situations, he is totally capable of hitting the target. “Crazy Heart” and “Out of the Furnace” are the best examples. In this case, he doesn’t completely miss the target, being a movie about Bruce Springsteen, it would have been impossible to do it…

@Courtesy of 20 Century Studios

Rate: C+

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Here’s the trailer for Springsteen: Deliver Me Form Nowhere: