REVIEW: ‘Killing Bono.’ Aspiring Rock Star Grows Up With the Guys From U2, Failure Ensues

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If you're a fan of either U2 or biting tales of consistent, spectacular failure, you should seek out "I Was Bono's Doppelganger," a funny, touching memoir by Neil McCormick. A rock critic who grew up in Dublin at the same time as the band, McCormick was friends with Bono, and from an early age they both dreamed of music stardom. But to McCormick's chagrin, his classmates became one of the biggest groups in the world while he struggled for years in a series of bands that never quite hit the big time. It's a great insider's account that touches on ambition, friendship, success, failure, stardom and acceptance, and it has all the makings of a fun music biopic. Unfortunately, the one they made from it, "Killing Bono," doesn't contain nearly enough of what made the book so entertaining and thoughtful.

The movie's name comes from the U.S. title of McCormick's book, which was a reference to a comment Bono made to his friend about needing to metaphorically kill him so that McCormick could stop negatively comparing himself to the superstar singer. But in an early indication of how far removed from the spirit of McCormick's book director Nick Hamm's film is, "Killing Bono" the movie opens with Neil (Ben Barnes) driving frantically toward a mob of U2 fans, preparing to shoot Bono (Martin McCann) out of jealousy because of the group's fame in the wake of "The Joshua Tree." (No such incident occurred in real life.) From there, the film flashes back to the late '70s as Neil, Bono and Neil's loyal younger brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan) plot their path to rock 'n' roll success. Neil and Ivan start their own band, Bono gets together with the guys who will eventually become U2, and the rest is history.

One of the great achievements of McCormick's book is that while the opening chapters are filled with terrific tales of U2 in their early days, even when the band fades into the background and the story becomes more about Neil and Ivan, you remained interested simply because of the very recognizable emotions at play in their story. McCormick for a long time was tormented by the fact that he was convinced he was destined for greatness; watching U2 become successful ate away at him, creating waves of anger, frustration and self-doubt in the cocky songwriter and frontman. But the movie glosses over these sentiments for a broad comedy that shows Neil and Ivan as hapless losers dealing with cartoonish music industry dolts. Where the book was insightful and candid, "Killing Bono" feels glib and cheeky, which keeps Neil's torment from seeming all that sympathetic.

As McCormick has himself acknowledged, the film version had to take several liberties with his life story, but in almost every instance the choices Hamm makes dilute the enjoyment of the original tale. In the film we learn less about Bono and the rest of U2 -- negating the brotherly connection Neil has with the singer -- and especially in its second half the onscreen Neil is a much more stereotypically arrogant rock star wannabe than he comes across in the book. (Especially annoying: The movie invents a dark secret that Neil is keeping from Ivan that isn't remotely consistent with U2's origins.) The pull of "I Was Bono's Doppelganger" was how McCormick humanized a scenario anyone can recognize -- being so close to greatness and yet not close enough -- but "Killing Bono" mostly just treats it as grist for a pretty predictable loser comedy about dopey managers, loose women and dated haircuts. As Bono, McCann nails the musician's haughty, charismatic essence. (Even though he's barely in the movie, he feels like a superstar from the first second.) But Barnes and Sheehan never rise above being hopeless dorks, which is unfortunate since I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be rooting for them -- or at least liking them. If the book made us realize that deep down inside we're all a little Neil McCormick, "Killing Bono" makes us grateful we're mostly not.

Grade: C