Bohemian Rhapsody

The PG13/12A certificate is the holy grail for film studios these days. A family friendly certificate guarantees a huge potential audience which means money money money. It's not particularly good for films though. Films aimed at adult audiences get sanitised so teenagers can see them. Sanitised stories lose their edge, their grittiness, adult themes are softened and in some cases removed completely. Bohemian Rhapsody is a case in point. It's far from a bad film and it contains an amazing lead performance but it's watered down feeling takes a lot from it.

In 1970 a young Parsi man called Farrokh Bulsara had a fateful meeting with the members of a pub band called Smile and both Queen and Freddie Mercury were born. Over the next 14 years their star rose higher than they could have ever imagined before it all inevitably came crashing down. But then the 13th of July 1985 came rolling around courtesy of a scruffy Irish punk.

This was far from perfect but I enjoyed it despite it's many issues. The part of Freddie Mercury is played by Rami Malek and he is phenomenal in the part. The strut, the campy flamboyance and the stage presence have been nailed perfectly and then there's the uncanny resemblence. It's an amazing transformation. During the joyous climax of the film you'll forgot you're watching a recreation of the events so absorbing is he in the part. His Freddie is a man of many contradictions. His soulmate was a woman he couldn't be with. A man plagued by loneliness but prone to pushing people away. It's a rich, layered and warm performance but one that probably won't win many awards due to the behind the scenes strife that plagued this film.

Director Bryan Singer was caught up in the sex scandals stirred up after Harvey Weinstein's arrest and was removed from the film during production. He was replaced by Dexter Fletcher straight away but this news meant people already had their knives out for the film. Then there was the prolonged period of pre-production, all 7 years of it. In 2010 it was reported Sacha Baron Cohen was to play Mercury but he left when his vision and that of the remaining Queen members didn't match. Supposedly he wanted a warts and all biopic while they wanted a more respectful movie. I'd have loved to have seen the darker vision he had planned. What finally appeared all feels too tame. The excesses of Freddie's life, both sexual and substance wise are hinted at but never dwelt on meaning we never really get to see what made him tick. Too much of it is just glossed over or never shown at all.

The same goes for a lot of the band story. The infamous Sun city concerts are ignored completely and far too much of it flies by in montages and the band members other than Mercury barely exist. Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) is the only one that gets any bit of a personality as he's the only one to not bow down before their mercurial whirlwind of a lead singer. All Brian May (Gwilym Lee) seems to do is agree with Freddie and have the worst haircut on earth while poor John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello, yes the young lad from Jurassic Park) sits in the corner smiling enigmatically. Malek aside the only other performance that registers is that of Lucy Boynton who plays Mary Austin, the wife of Freddie. She gets an oddly large part in a film about a flamboyantly gay singer and it's a pity the film chose to spend so much time on their relationship rather than the one between Freddie and his long time partner Jim Hutton. Then to cap it off a very important part of the tale is relegated to a few title cards at the film's end. 

As you see there's a lot wrong with the film but there's loads right too. The part where an angered Freddie calls someone a pissflap. The musical moments are electrifying of course. The birth and growth of their most famous songs, the concert scenes that had audience at the screening I went to bopping in their seats and finally the pinnacle of Queen's existence, that famous Live Aid performance. Here it's recreated and we get to see nearly all of it in real time. It's a hair raising moment. Even miserable bastards who don't like the music being played should get a kick out of it. For the music and Malek's performance it's worth watching this. They will, they will rock you.

I apologise unreservedly for that last line.