The musical biopic has always been that little subgenre I’ve
enjoyed—what’s not to love about combining awesome music with the visual
splendour of cinema? There’s been a fair few good ones in recent times, like
the gangsta rap chronicle Straight Outta Compton, or the ch-ch-cherry-bomb
infused Runaways. Going back further, you get the lavish and classically-themed
Amadeus; and my personal favorite, This is Spinal Tap, that legendary and
utterly authentic epic about the world’s greatest, and then lamest, metal band,
blessed and cursed with exploding drummers and undersized Stonehenge replicas.
Anyway. That finally brings us to Queen—an
iconic, explosively awesome band if there ever was one. Let’s face it, pretty
much everyone can hum and nod along to at least one of their tunes, and at a
point it was guaranteed that you’d have a Greatest Hits tape of theirs in a
car, as Terry Pratchett sagely pointed out. They took on everything from
massive tours to making the original Highlander even more cheesily awesome. And
at the forefront was the one, the only, the continent-cracking voice, Freddy
Mercury. But with such a force of personality comes the inevitable conflict
that overcame any band that swam in money as Queen did—a story that Bohemian Rhapsody
tries to take on. Does it explode with dynamite and a laser beam, or is it like
having a fat bottom being rubbed in your face?
For starters, most of the cast is definitely well-picked—Rami
Malek nails it as Mercury, to the point that you won’t even think of him as
anyone else on screen. There’s the personality you expect, with the force of a
night at the opera infused with a type of magic. Gwilym Lee is an absolute dead
ringer for Brian May, and there’s an initially unrecognizable Mike Myers as the
usual snivelly record executive basically set up for the audience to boo. Everyone
else, like Lucy Boynton, at least does what they’re supposed to, although as with
any project like this, you’ll have at least one person that’ll contest the
portrayals. And given the concoctions and potions any such band would’ve been taken
in the purple haze-addled years of the seventies, who knows who’s right.
The story, or rather the presentation, is somewhat more
mixed. The initial segment kind of rushes through Mercury signing on and the
band’s ascension—you sort of get the impression he just came on for a lark and
then all of a sudden they lit the world on fire. Overall, in terms of structure
and what it’s actually about, the film doesn’t really do much new there. You
have the usual music biopic beats—the executives, the band tension, and so on,
though in fairness, it’s not like these were exactly one-off things for so many
musicians through the decades.
It’s when things get focused on a now mustached sporting
Mercury in the middle that things get interesting. He’s clearly a force of
personality and with an ego to boot, but with the talent to back it up—though
the film doesn’t shy away from highlighting the contributions of all the rest
of the band. It’s Malek’s A-plus performance that truly sells everything
Mercury goes through, from distracting himself with wild parties to coming to
terms with duplicitous boyfriends. For me, this was the real meat of the film,
and it was reasonably done all things considered.
The climax comes at the 1985 Live Aid concert, lavishly
recreated, and while some might find it a bit long or indulgent….hell with it,
it’s Queen. If you love even one or two of their songs, you’ll be tapping your
foot along to this part all the way. I recommend this part on the big screen at
least just to truly sell the sound and spectacle.
After that it abruptly ends; Mercury’s tragic death of AIDs
is presented in the usual text blurbs that sum up the rest of the band’s
history. Some may have wanted to see his struggles with the disease to fill up
the last act, but then again, it seems the surviving band members wanted a more
positive finale to go off on. And considering that Queen was all about
uplifting anthems and auditory ass-kicking, maybe that’s only suitable.
Bohemian Rhapsody doesn’t really reinvent things and for me
it took a little bit to get going, but it’s fine, and definitely a must-see for
fans of the band. Had the cast been more lacking it definitely would’ve fell
flat, but that’s the crucial thing it gets right. It may not be a Prince of the
Universe, but it’s at least going to rock you if you want it to.
Comments
Post a Comment