Bohemian Rhapsody-A Movie Review

Bohemian Rhapsody is a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and their extraordinary lead singer Freddie Mercury. Freddie defied stereotypes and shattered convention to become one of the most beloved entertainers on the planet. The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound. They reach unparalleled success, but in an unexpected turn Freddie, surrounded by darker influences, shuns Queen in pursuit of his solo career. Having suffered greatly without the collaboration of Queen, Freddie manages to reunite with his bandmates just in time for Live Aid. While bravely facing a recent AIDS diagnosis, Freddie leads the band in one of the greatest performances in the history of rock music. Queen cements a legacy that continues to inspire outsiders, dreamers and music lovers to this day.

Director: Bryan Singer
Writers: Anthony McCarten (story by), Peter Morgan (story by)
Stars: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello (as Joe Mazzello), Aidan Gillen, Allen Leech, Tom Hollander, Mike Myers, Aaron McCusker
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Duration: 2h 14min; Genres: Biography, Drama, Music; Release Date: 2 November 2018 (USA)

Bryan Singer uses a straight forward story telling style which means events and time lines have to be condensed and fictionalized to tell the story in just over 2 hours. This also means that many real characters have to amalgamate in to a couple of fictional personas. I had no problem with this.

Instead of showing a debauched indulgent life, Bohemian Rhapsody instead shows us a man trying to come to terms with his extraordinary life. It shows how with the help of the truly talented other members of Queen he was able to do that. It also shows his joy, his loneliness, plus some of his mistakes and missteps along the way, and of course his complex relationship with Mary Astor possibly the one person he truly loved. It tackles his sexuality and some of the aftermath of his partying. It also shows the beginning of his illness. This is all achieved with sensitivity and respect.

And then there was the music. Bohemian Rhapsody is possibly at its greatest when recreating queen on stage. Using a mixture of real singing from the actors, Queen and Freddie’s over dubbing and sound alike artists to create a totally unique feel to Queens songs. Recreations of the bands greatest hits are mixed, to sound fresher than ever. Then there’s The Live Aid performance. Much like the real concert it almost dwarfs everything that has gone before on film. We the audience really get to experience what it was like to be at that event. Not just from the crowd but from the bands point of view. Almost every highlight from that performance is featured.

Everyone agrees Rami Malek is a revelation as Freddie after about 20 minutes you totally forget that this is an actor. He is Freddie. This can also be said for Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy and Joseph Mazzello playing The rest of the band. John Deacon remains the enigma of the band. Lucy Boynton gives a carefully measured and sensitive performance as Mary Astor coming to terms with the changes in Freddie’s life. Unfortunately Allen Leech has the unenviable task of playing a composites of some of Freddie’s lovers and is a bit of a cliche villain. But he gives a good account of himself. As for the rest of the cast. Everyone else is solid.

We watched this at home on Netflix but had the sound system up, and it gave me goosebumps a few times. This was a great movie, and I’d love to have seen it in iMax. If you didn’t see it, do yourself a favor and watch. It was great. Me and Lay give it a nine.

(1 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)

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