Jon Batiste is a melodica.

If there’s one thing you can trust as true in the documentary “American Symphony,” which charts a tumultuous year in the life of the delightfully genre-twisting New Orleans musician, it is that his signature instrument is a manifestation of the man himself.

Part organ, part horn, part toy, it is a curious device, existing in appearance and in sound somewhere between quirky and downright odd. At the same time, though, there is something wondrous about it, largely because of that unmistakable but embraceable out-of-the-ordinariness.

In that regard, the melodica — like the man who put it on the modern musical map — is the platypus of the musical world. Both are decidedly different, and both are wonderful because of it.

Batiste might be an oddball genius, but he is a genius nonetheless. The armload of trophies he walked away with at the 2022 Grammys — not to mention his 2020 Oscar — make all the case that needs to be made on that account.

Director Matthew Heineman’s cameras, and the unprecedented access afforded him, certainly capture that in “American Symphony,” which lands Nov. 29 on Netflix.

An intimate peek

At the same time, it also leaves something to be desired.

To be fair, Heineman’s film does a fine job capturing Batiste’s creative process, as he sets about composing a stirring symphonic ode to the United States, also titled “American Symphony.” The premiere of that piece at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall is held out as the centerpiece of the film’s dramatic final act.

Along the way, audiences get a rare, intimate peek inside the normally private Batiste’s life. That comes largely through the medical struggles of his wife, the writer Suleika Jaouad, who previously chronicled her fight with leukemia in a New York Times column, “Life, Interrupted,” and a subsequent best-selling book.

As we learn at the outset of “American Symphony,” the leukemia is back, and Jaouad must prepare for the rigors of a bone marrow transplant while Batiste prepares for his symphony’s big debut. Heineman’s cameras are there throughout, adding an additional layer of drama and vulnerability to things.

A butterfly kiss

It must be said, Batiste and Jaouad are a sweet couple, playful and affectionate and deeply in love — at times insufferably so, a cynic might say.

OK, I’m the cynic saying it. If Batiste by himself is the embodiment of a melodica, he and Jaouad are collectively a butterfly kiss personified.

More than the ramblings of a crusty old critic, that perceived romantic pretention is a symptom of a greater problem with “American Symphony,” one fundamental to the craft of documentary filmmaking. It has everything to do with authenticity — or, more precisely, the lack of it.

From Batiste and Jaouad’s metaphorical nose-rubbing to Batiste’s caught-on-film phone conversations with his therapist, “American Symphony” is often best summed up by its last two syllables: phony.

That is in no way intended to suggest their love isn’t real or that their real-life struggles aren’t genuine. But in the context of Heineman’s film, moment after moment feels performative, as if it were rehearsed or staged in some way. Consequently, the emotional impact of the film is blunted.

The camera’s impact

It’s not a unique problem. If you put a camera in front of people, they invariably change. Whether consciously or not, they stop being their honest and true selves. Instead, they become calculated, presenting the person they’d like the camera to see instead of the true person beneath.

It’s a very real challenge for a documentary filmmaker. When an audience gets the impression that what they are witnessing is in some way scripted or curated, the magical spell of cinema is broken.

I don’t care who Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad want me to think they are. I want to know who they really are. And I’m not convinced “American Symphony” consistently delivers that.

Now, it should be pointed out that Heineman’s film is already winning awards. In addition to earning a trophy’s case worth of honors on the film festival circuit, “American Symphony” led all films at this month’s Critic’s Choice Documentary Awards, earning nominations in six categories.

It is worth noting, however, it won only two of those CCDA categories. Both were for music.

Maybe that means something. Maybe it doesn’t.

But it is the truth.

Mike Scott can be reached at [email protected].

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AMERICAN SYMPHONY

2 stars, out of 4

SNAPSHOT: A documentary portrait of a tumultuous year in the life of musician Jon Batiste.

CAST: Batiste, Suleika Jaouad.

DIRECTOR: Matthew Heineman.

RATED: PG-13.

TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes.

WHEN AND WHERE: Begins streaming Wednesday (Nov. 29) on Netflix.