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| photo courtesy of foxmovies.com |
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
In Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek plays Freddie Mercury, the lead
singer of the British rock band Queen. The movie follows Freddie and the band
from their formative days as a club act through their successive albums, hits,
and tours, culminating in their historic performance at the Live Aid concert in
1985.
With an impressive
performance from Malek and a welcome reliance on Queen’s most famous rock
anthems, Bohemian Rhapsody overcomes
the rather prominent flaws in its script. Much has been made of Malek’s
transformation into Mercury, which, thanks to excellent casting and the help of
some prosthetic teeth, is startling in its accuracy. And considering the
dialogue he’s given, Malek does an admirable job conveying both sides of
Mercury: the bold, energetic stage presence and the quiet, introverted at-home
personality. He’s easily the movie’s major selling point.
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| photo courtesy of variety.com |
Apart from Malek, the
movie succeeds when it’s willing to dive into the band’s memorable showmanship.
As a whole, the experience is more about reliving the glory days than it is
taking a hard-hitting, biographical look at Mercury. It takes the audience into
big venues, showcases the greatest hits, and lets the audience bob their heads
and sing along. The final sequence, for instance, recreates the Live Aid
performance almost moment-for-moment, and it’s sort of a wonder to behold. On
that level, at least—the titanic, dramatic, gods-of-rock level—Bohemian Rhapsody impresses.
The script, on the
other hand, only works on the most basic level—the functional, serviceable, “get
from point A to point B” level. Queen purists might be annoyed by the movie’s
major alterations to the band’s history, which tend to favor coincidences, over-dramatize
certain events, and generally mold the story into a familiar model (common
biopic complaints that are worse than usual in Rhapsody). In many places, the script accomplishes its storytelling
by telling the audience things—stating them rather bluntly—instead of showing
or demonstrating them.
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| photo courtesy of bbc.com |
And like other fan
service-oriented films, Rhapsody
takes plenty of cheap shots. Characters often say something that only has value
for the modern viewer, in retrospect, that don’t make a whole lot of sense in
the moment. At one point, a disgruntled studio exec says something like, “In a
month, nobody’ll remember Queen!” Cue knowing chuckles from the audience.
On balance, though, Bohemian Rhapsody should win over most
of the crowd by the time the credits roll. Poor though the story may be, the
appeal of Queen’s music is undeniable, and seeing the Live Aid concert depicted
in such detail is like witnessing a small slice of rock-and-roll history come
to life in real time. Add in doppelganger-Malek and his prosthetic overbite,
and you’ve got something special.
Bohemian Rhapsody is
rated PG-13.
TRAILER
Watch the trailer here.
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| photo courtesy of detroitnews.com |
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