Rocketman
Year: 2019
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Jamie Bell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Taron Egerton & Richard Madden
Runtime: 121 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 28/05/21
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Jamie Bell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Taron Egerton & Richard Madden
Runtime: 121 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 28/05/21
The buzz surrounding Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was quite literally through the roof. Everyone wanted to watch it and it was poised to be the awards darling of the year. That was until people watched it and everyone’s hopes and dreams fell apart in front of them. Now I quite like Bohemian Rhapsody, but I can understand where people’s criticisms come from. I can almost certainly guarantee that this poor critical performance was what caused Rocketman, the Elton John biopic that was starting its advertising campaign around the same time Bohemian Rhapsody released, to try and do something different in an attempt to set itself apart from the bad taste left in people’s mouths from Queen & Mercury’s adventures in motion picture.
Reginald Dwight is a young boy living in a household with his emotionally neglectful father (Steven Mackintosh), his disinterested mother (Bryce Dallas Howard), and his loving grandmother (Gemma Jones). Reginald shows promise on the piano, far beyond the abilities of others his age, and he is accepted on scholarship into the Royal Academy of Music. As Reginald grows up (Taron Egerton) his abilities improve, he scores gigs in local pubs and music venues to earn some extra cash, and he also approaches an agency to try and further his music career where he meets songwriter Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell). The duo appears to be an unstoppable force, with Reginald now adopting the name Elton John, he is the face of a double act that would go on to conquer the music industry.
The duo begins to tour internationally however a life of fame and fortune begin to beset the both of them, straining their relationship and ultimately causing them to part ways. Meanwhile Elton grapples with being a homosexual man in the public eye, hiding his relationship with his abusive manager John Reid (Richard Madden), and growing addicted to sex, drugs, and alcohol in the process.
Reginald Dwight is a young boy living in a household with his emotionally neglectful father (Steven Mackintosh), his disinterested mother (Bryce Dallas Howard), and his loving grandmother (Gemma Jones). Reginald shows promise on the piano, far beyond the abilities of others his age, and he is accepted on scholarship into the Royal Academy of Music. As Reginald grows up (Taron Egerton) his abilities improve, he scores gigs in local pubs and music venues to earn some extra cash, and he also approaches an agency to try and further his music career where he meets songwriter Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell). The duo appears to be an unstoppable force, with Reginald now adopting the name Elton John, he is the face of a double act that would go on to conquer the music industry.
The duo begins to tour internationally however a life of fame and fortune begin to beset the both of them, straining their relationship and ultimately causing them to part ways. Meanwhile Elton grapples with being a homosexual man in the public eye, hiding his relationship with his abusive manager John Reid (Richard Madden), and growing addicted to sex, drugs, and alcohol in the process.
I’m going to start off by saying that whilst I enjoy Elton John’s music, I’ve never been a huge fan. In fact, I could probably only name a couple of his songs. So, I feel it’s worth noting that your opinion of the film may differ depending on how big of an Elton fan you are. As such Rocketman failed to resonate with me in the way I think it tries to do. Whilst Egerton’s performance as Elton John was excellent, bringing with it almost the entire emotional weight of the film (due to the mostly stoic performances from everybody else), I feel that the film often chose to gloss over the more dramatic moments to focus on cramming more elaborate musical numbers into the two hour runtime.
Something I was totally unaware of prior to starting Rocketman is that it is not a strait-laced biopic, but instead a musical with grand, fantastical musical numbers to punctuate key moment’s in Elton’s life. These larger than life numbers whilst often impressive stand as a stark contrast to the otherwise relatively depressing tone of the film. It then causes a conflict of tone that never manages to truly allow either to flourish. Bohemian Rhapsody got dark when it needed to, it didn’t make Mercury out to be a saint, and it allowed for true reflection on how awful his life was at times. This is not the case with Rocketman as every time things starts to get bad it transitions into a musical number that’s usually glitzy and glamourous. It’s all very Elton, but much like his tendency to hide how he’s feeling in the film the audience is often never truly allowed to see just how bad things got, nor how it actually made him feel.
The costume and set design are what really stood out for me. Due to the film spanning four decades there’s a lot of changes in the way people and places look. Often the makeup is lacking in that over four decades almost none of the characters visibly age, but the costume design is on point. Particularly with Elton’s flamboyant fashion sense that truly gives the picture some much needed colour. I also enjoyed how much of the film is structured around an alcoholics anonymous meeting that Elton is in attendance of.
On the whole I wouldn’t recommend Rocketman if you’re not a big Elton fan. Whilst it’s certainly not a bad film, it doesn’t go deep enough into Elton’s life to really feel like a worthy biopic. I wonder whether Elton has too much of a hand in creation of the film and was too afraid of letting his more fragile moments show? But it simply serves as more proof that a biopic shouldn’t be made whilst the people at the centre of it are still alive.
Something I was totally unaware of prior to starting Rocketman is that it is not a strait-laced biopic, but instead a musical with grand, fantastical musical numbers to punctuate key moment’s in Elton’s life. These larger than life numbers whilst often impressive stand as a stark contrast to the otherwise relatively depressing tone of the film. It then causes a conflict of tone that never manages to truly allow either to flourish. Bohemian Rhapsody got dark when it needed to, it didn’t make Mercury out to be a saint, and it allowed for true reflection on how awful his life was at times. This is not the case with Rocketman as every time things starts to get bad it transitions into a musical number that’s usually glitzy and glamourous. It’s all very Elton, but much like his tendency to hide how he’s feeling in the film the audience is often never truly allowed to see just how bad things got, nor how it actually made him feel.
The costume and set design are what really stood out for me. Due to the film spanning four decades there’s a lot of changes in the way people and places look. Often the makeup is lacking in that over four decades almost none of the characters visibly age, but the costume design is on point. Particularly with Elton’s flamboyant fashion sense that truly gives the picture some much needed colour. I also enjoyed how much of the film is structured around an alcoholics anonymous meeting that Elton is in attendance of.
On the whole I wouldn’t recommend Rocketman if you’re not a big Elton fan. Whilst it’s certainly not a bad film, it doesn’t go deep enough into Elton’s life to really feel like a worthy biopic. I wonder whether Elton has too much of a hand in creation of the film and was too afraid of letting his more fragile moments show? But it simply serves as more proof that a biopic shouldn’t be made whilst the people at the centre of it are still alive.