Movie Review: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Ahhh, Bohemian Crhapsody, the tale of the band Queen, and it’s…what’s that? I added an extra “C” to the title? Oh, no, kind sir, I did not add the extra “C” to the title…the director did.
Now where was I? Oh, yes, the tale of the band Queen and it’s effervescent front man, Freddie Mercury. I think the greatest insult anyone could have hurled at Mercury wouldn’t be fag or packi, as happened several times in the movie, but rather would be to call him boring-which means this film is a two hour and 14 minute insult to the late singer. The movie was originally directed by Bryan Singer (who also helmed several of the “X-Men” movies, as well as The Usual Suspects, a favorite of mine), but personal issues and tensions on the set led to his being fired and replaced with Dexter Fletcher, a man who has directed several movies you haven’t seen, and written several movies you haven’t seen, and also acted in dozens of films…of which you ALSO haven’t seen. Perhaps this was the problem, I dunno, but I think it probably had more to do with the writing.
The film tells the story of Queen, from it’s early days playing in London basements under a different name, to their meeting with Freddie, who becomes their singer, and then things start to happen. The movie ends with a 25 minute recreation of their ENTIRE Live Aid concert.
Yes. The last thirty minutes of the film is just Rami Malek pretending to be Mercury in a perfectly choreographed recreation of the worldwide, multi continent concert to raise money for Africa.
I have to assume that neither of the directors were aware that the original is available to view, for free, anytime, on YouTube. As a matter of fact, you can also stream several documentaries about Queen, and Freddie in particular, which were all made with a much smaller budget, but still manage to be much more interesting and informative. For example, I found out that Freddie went to art school, and was actually quite good. He was born in Zanzibar before his family emigrated to London to escape a revolution…a revolution! Wow, that could be interesting! His family was Zoroastrian (again, interesting), Freddie was gay in an otherwise conservative family (also interesting), and his bandmates, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, and Brian May weren’t just accomplished musicians in their own right, but, had fate dealt them a different hand, could, instead, have become a scientist or a dentist (more interesting tidbits!).
However, the writer decided to not really focus in on…anything, really. Aside from Farrokh (Freddie’s birth name…wouldn’t it have been interesting to find out why he chose the name “Freddie Mercury”? I’m curious, but, too bad for me), none of the other band members get any of a back story. It’s all about the lead singer, which is too bad, not just because they missed the story here, but also because it just might be impossible for anyone to actually pull off pretending to be Freddie Mercury. Rami does a respectable job, although the dental device he wears to match the originals can be a bit…distracting? The problem, which I didn’t really figure out until I watched videos of the original band performing, was that Freddie wasn’t a rock performer. He was a broadway star. He always played to the very last row of seats in the theater, or arena, or stadium, or even a basement bar. Rami Malek plays to the camera instead, and he does a fine job, but it’s obvious he’s just a blurry photocopy of Mercury.
I think the writers would have been better off shortening the time frame, let’s say, start when the band meets Freddie for the first time, and end when they record A Night at the Opera, which contained the anthem the movie is titled for. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is over six minutes long, which was pretty much a death knell to radio programmers. They could have spent more time on how they came up with some of the sounds they created, instead of just a few minutes montage of what they did. What was the inspiration? Who thought of what? The drama of trying to get the record label to listen to them would have been interesting, but here it’s just a couple of scenes…but then we needed to make time for the Live Aid concert recreation, clearly a very important part for at least one of the directors.
We don’t get to see much interaction with his family (um, a family of Zoroastrians have a gay son in a band named “Queen” who just changed his name to “Mercury”…there had to be at least ONE fight), and the rest of the band is largely ignored. At one point, the band is fighting, they are tired of Freddie showing up late, being drunk, blah blah blah, and one of them announces that he has kids now and has to go home to be with them. The last time I checked, and I could be wrong, I really don’t like children so I usually ignore them, having a child is a MAJOR life change, especially for guys in a rock band. When did this happen? Why wasn’t it mentioned and celebrated? Did ANYONE else get married? And by any one else I mean the actual straight people who were legally allowed to marry at that time.
Freddie, of course, has a love interest. Her name (yes, HER) was Lucy Boynton, played with off putting ennui by Mary Austin, and she was the love of his life, although I was never quite sure why. Aside from saying “I love you” every five seconds, and the rather anxiety inducing make out scenes (seriously, with the dental implant, every time he moved in to kiss her I thought he was gonna take a bite out of her face), there wasn’t any chemistry. Granted, that may have been because Freddie Mercury was a flaming homosexual, but we never really see why she is so important to him, except for him saying it over and over and over and over again. There is a scene where Lucy basically tells Freddie he is gay, who in turn is trying to tell her he’s bisexual, but it falls flat. A while later, she meets him before a show and introduces him to her new boyfriend. Freddie is visibly shaken by this…but why? He’s sleeping with men now, so he should be happy for her, but he’s upset. I supposed they could have explored why, but that would have been dramatic and interesting and we wouldn’t want that in a film about a 5’10” hairy persian who romps around a stage in a silver lame leotard.
My friend Barb enjoyed the movie a lot more than I did, but she was honest, saying she just loved the music. That is great, it’s also what you should do, fire up your iTunes account and listen to Queens greatest hits. Then, head over to YouTube and watch the Live Aid concert, and maybe a documentary or two, but save your money.
Extra credit if you wear the silver leotard!