Written by: Anthony McCarten, Peter Morgan
Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee
IMDb Link
It's ironic that a film, whose namesake was known for its creativity and experimentation, could be so damn formulaic. Bohemian Rhapsody isn't bad, in fact Rami Malek alone is enough to make it worthwhile, and listening to a Queen's Greatest Hits album is always a good time, but it's such a shallow examination of its subject, so twisted to fit the expected structure of a musical biopic that nothing the film offers is more than fleetingly exciting.
The film's about a band called Queen; you might've heard of them. It's also fleetingly about other aspects of Freddie Mercury's life, including his relationships, heritage, and sexuality. I do mean fleetingly; the film plays everything super safe, not wanting to deviate from the focus on the music and Mercury the showman, giving only the smallest of glimpses in to Mercury the person. Even more than that, the film never tries anything new, twisting its source to fit in to the musical biopic structure, hitting the same old tired beats for the sake of forced drama and some obvious music cues that set up moments so contrived they feel ripped from a parody. Mercury dazzles Brian May and Roger Taylor with a spontaneous break in to song, John Deacon plays the base line of "Another One Bites the Dust" when Mercury and Taylor are fighting, that sort of thing; moments that are too fortuitous to feel anything other than manufactured. By adhering to a decades-old formula and never dwelling on anything long enough for it to feel real, while playing moments clearly constructed for the movie with such a straight face, the film amounts to little more than shallow entertainment.
That said, the entertainment shouldn't be discounted. The film is happy to twist the story for some easy drama, but it's much more forgivable when it does the same for a few light quips and a little fun. A few scenes are cobbled together to give the film a few comedy beats that are worth a laugh or two, Mercury getting all of the best retorts (in reply to "Bohemian Rhapsody going on 'forever': 'Darling, I feel sorry for your wife if you think that six minutes is forever'). There's also a handful of scenes with the band at work, and a couple of lively montages that keep things fun without building up any sense of the impending drama. There's also the music itself; even if we're looking at what is essentially a cover band, it's their music, as powerful an energetic as ever, and a reminder of their once ground-breaking work. It doesn't do much to justify this being a film as opposed to an album, but the music is so good that it is enough for me to cut this film a few breaks. It's light entertainment, but entertainment nonetheless.
In centre-stage, making all of this work well enough to be watchable, is Malek. He's the only part of the film that feels genuinely charming, with a magnetic performance that evokes the same stage presence as Mercury himself, and emotional expression that suggests a performance that could have gone far deeper, had the writing been there to support him. He doesn't have much material to work with, but he does everything he can to make Mercury seem fully realised on-screen, a larger-than-life figure on the stage, beset by doubt and self-hatred, with a fabulous persona to shield his insecurities. In the few moments the film takes to actually breathe and let him play the part of a real person and not an advertisement, Malek shows us the makings of something special that never gets a chance to bear its fruit.
The Short Version: A strong performance from Rami Malek is not enough to make this contrived and formulaic version of a good story amazing, but the good pieces of the film add up to a positive enough experience to accept alongside the bad.
Rating: 6/10
Published November 14th, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment