ReelBob: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ ★★½
By Bob Bloom
The challenge of a biopic is distilling a person’s life down to a 120- or 135-minute time slot.
Compromises must be made, and, at times, accuracy is jettisoned to add drama and conflict.
And it should not detract from a movie nor deter someone from seeing it simply because liberties are taken with dates, places or even people.
Thus it is with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a movie about rock star Freddie Mercury.
Mercury and the band Queen were extraordinary and dynamic performers. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the movie.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a formulaic, rags-to-riches story that treads an overused cinematic road to chronicle the band and Mercury’s rise to fortune and fame.
While the film provides lots of glitz and glamour, it comes up short when delving into the offstage, behind-the-scenes lives and interactions with the supergroup.
The reason may be that Queen members, lead guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, served as the film’s creative consultants and former Queen manager Jim Beach was one of the producers.
While wanting to be as honest and open as possible, they may have been a bit reluctant to air all of the group’s dirtier laundry.
It may have served the movie better if objective outsiders were handling the reins.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is, like Mercury, a flamboyant and lively, production. What it lacks — and sorely needs — is insight into what made Mercury the larger-than-life performer he was.
We first meet him as a young man working as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport.
Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara of Parsi descent, lived in India before his family moved to England.
While “Bohemian Rhapsody” soars at covering the band’s talent as songwriters, musicians and onstage performers, it fails to explain the source of Mercury’s lyrical gifts, his ostentatious personality and gargantuan self-confidence and self-centeredness.
Keeping “Bohemian Rhapsody” on key is the performance of Rami Malek as Mercury. He does more than portray Mercury — he inhabits Freddie.
He captures the essence of Mercury’s outrageous persona, as well as the inner demons that drove his conflicted life — his constant seeking of his father’s approval and his battles with his own sexuality.
Onstage and in the recording studio, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is riveting. The forays into Mercury’s turbulent private life are where the movie hits its sour notes.
The strange relationship with his girlfriend, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) and the Svengali-like relationship with his personal manager, Paul Prenter (Allan Leech) are cliched, trite and ring hollow.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” ends with Queen’s triumphant performance in 1985 at Live Aid. By this time, according to the movie, Mercury had contracted AIDS. (In reality, he was diagnosed with AIDS years later.)
Unfortunately, it is too little, too late. From there, we get the usual written epilogue, offering details about the post-Live Aid lives of the major characters.
I truly believe the vast majority of Queen and Mercury fans will overlook the movie’s flaws and wholly embrace the project.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a project that needed more background about Mercury’s I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude. It needed to strut, prance around with abandon and command the audience like its subject.
Instead, we receive a tame and superficial glance at one of the most memorable performers in the history of rock.
I am a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
2½ stars out of 4
(R), language, sexual content, drug use