Following last year’s Freddie Mercury / Queen biography Bohemian Rhapsody, which I really enjoyed, films about famous musicians and their music are now all the rage. Yesterday and Blinded by the Light celebrate the music of the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen, respectively. Pavarotti and Echo in the Canyon are darling documentaries about the great tenor and the music scene in 1960s California. And then there’s Rocketman, detailing the rise of Elton John to the top of the charts.
Dexter Fletcher’s film is as cinematic as can be, employing old-style musical dance numbers, fantasy flashbacks, unexpected camera tricks and a terrific central performance by Taron Egerton as Reginald Dwight, who grew up to become Elton John. Egerton sings the songs himself, quite well, adding to the prestige of his performance, which is so good he should certainly receive an Oscar nomination for it. Also excellent is Jamie Bell as lyricist Bernie Taupin, who remains Elton’s pal through thick and thin.
The problem with the film, despite its flash and dazzle and originality, is that it is rather thick. Over the years a stereotypical persona has blossomed about rock stars, involving poor beginnings, hard work to achieve stardom, revelry in sudden fortune, prominent drug use, sexual experimentation, paranoia, regret, detoxification, rehabilitation and the inevitable comeback. This movie hits every single one of those elements, in pretty much the same order, ending with Elton singing (surprise, surprise) “I’m Still Standing.” It is amazing to me that the film can be so visually adept and yet play like a bad TV-movie about a singer’s rise and fall and rise again — even if it is all true, as the advertising proclaims.
Between its fantastical elements, the involvement of other characters singing at times, the script’s dancing around Elton’s homosexuality and all of the tropes about show business coming to roost in Elton’s palatial home, I found the film tough going for a while. At it’s center lies a superb performance, and the music is pretty damn good (I actually understood some of Taupin’s lyrics for the first time when being clearly enunciated by Egerton). Yet the film made me yearn for Ken Russell’s touch; I think he would have avoided many of the clichés and found even deeper meaning than is presented here. ☆ ☆ 1/2. 31 July 2019.