Bohemian Rhapsody

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Director : Bryan Singer
Year : 2018
Genre : Biographical drama
Rating : ****

Ever since it was announced over 10 years ago, I have waited with baited breath for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the long gestated biopic about the English rock group Queen and their charismatic frontman, the late, great Freddie Mercury. Finally, having gone through numerous directors, producers, actors and scripts, the film has been released. But as Freddie himself sang in 1989, was it all worth it?

Having garnered multiple award nominations for his leading role in TV’s ‘Mr. Robot’, Rami Malek is now sure to add an Oscar nod to his checklist with his truly extraordinary turn as Mercury (ne Farrokh Bulsara), the young Zanzibari-born, cat obsessed and golden voiced optimist who over the course of his turbulent life turned himself from a lowly baggage handler at Heathrow airport into one of rock musics most important and revered figures. Framed around Queen’s legendary performance at Live Aid in 1985 (bought to life with astonishing realism and attention to detail), 'Bohemian Rhapsody' abbreviates the meteoric rise of the band - from their early days as struggling songwriters to stadium-dominating giants whose blaze of glory was tragically cut short by the death of Mercury in 1991.

Now as some of you will know. Queen has been my favourite band since childhood. As a kid, I would eagerly listen to my uncles CD’s of ‘Queen On Fire : Live At The Bowl’ and ‘Queen : Live At Wembley Stadium’ while as a teenager, I aimed to collect the groups many vinyls, cassettes, CD’s and concerts on VHS and DVD. Even today as a 27 year old husband and father, the band still feature strongly in my daily life, with at least one of their albums (both group and solo) spinning on my record player each week - even as I write this review, the classic sounds of 1977’s ‘News Of The World’ are blasting through my earphones. ‘You’re My Best Friend’ was played at mine and my wife’s wedding ceremony and we even played Queen to my daughter while she was still in the womb. In other words, their music means more to me than any book I’ve ever read and any film I’ve ever watched.

So as you can imagine, I was very trepidatious about the prospect of a Queen-based movie and the many stories that surfaced during it’s perpetually troubled production filled me with worry and doubt. From the high-profile controversy surrounding the casting and subsequent firing of original star Sacha Baron Cohen to the on and off set antics of eventual director Bryan Singer (who would go on to be replaced during post-production by 'Eddie The Eagle' helmsman Dexter Fletcher) to the films ‘straight-washed’ trailer which appeared to erase any hint of Freddie's closeted homosexuality and eventual AIDS diagnosis, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ looked increasingly like an insulting travesty unworthy of Queen and especially Mercury's legacy.

So it is with great relief to say that my worries were ultimately misplaced as 'Bohemian Rhapsody’ is a truly wonderful and sometimes breathtakingly emotional movie that serves less as a documentary-like feature and more as a 2 hour and 20 minute long celebration of Queen’s music and the continuing worldwide admiration for Freddie. As mentioned earlier, Rami Malek delivers one of the best performances of 2018, hauntingly embodying the same electrifying  yet tender sensibilities that made Mercury one of pop cultures most enigmatic figures. Donning the iconic moustache and unmistakable overbite, Malek completely transforms into Freddie and while it would have been interesting to see the more mature film envisioned by Sacha Baron Cohen, it is hard to imagine him doing anything like a good a job as Malek. The rest of the cast are great too with standout performances from Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy and Joe Mazzello as fellow Queen bandmates Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon respectively, ‘Sing Street’s Lucy Boynton who is extremely likeable as Freddie’s long-time friend Mary Austin and an almost unrecognizable Mike Myers who is a lot of fun in his knowingly grumpy role as Ray Foster, a composite character who is unsurprisingly gifted some  of the funniest lines in Anthony McCarten’s screenplay. However make no mistake, the movie belongs to Rami Malek and he relishes every second he is on screen. Honestly, if he is snubbed for an Oscar nomination next year, then something is seriously awry in the Academy.

If you are going in to the film expecting an encyclopaedic history of Queen and a forensic examination of Freddie's personal life, then ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ may not be for you. In fact, for all of its top notch performances, set designs and costume designs, the film rather disappointingly plays out very much like a standard musical biopic, dutifully following the tempo and specific beats of almost every other rock-doc made before it. Then again, that’s not what most audience members are going in to the film expecting. They are there to see amazing concert reconstructions and to hear Queen’s incredible music on the loudest speakers possible and in this respect, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ succeeds spectacularly - with the final Live Aid set piece being nothing short of pure cinema magic.

Yes, it is filled with many historical inaccuracies that are sure to annoy die-hard fans (I could write an essay about the many errors concerning the timeline of the events depicted on screen, most upsettingly, those regarding Freddie’s AIDS diagnosis) and there are many documentaries that have already been made about the band that managed to delve deeper into the band mates individual histories; I personally would recommend the incredibly moving 2000 documentary ‘Freddie Mercury : The Untold Story’ made by regular Queen collaborators Rudy Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher. Nevertheless, as a piece of crowd-pleasing entertainment, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is a simply euphoric viewing and listening experience, the likes of which come around very rarely in today’s blockbuster-saturated environment. It will rock you!