Perhaps Bryan Singer's swan song,
Bohemian Rhapsody is a safe, non-controversial, dull biopic about the exciting and anything but dull life of Freddie Mercury and his band Queen.
Everyone already knows that this movie has been in production hell for ten years. Bryan Singer was actually fired halfway through production for "unprofessionalism" but he retains the directors credit due to union rules. As he was not a part of post-production, it's hard to say if this film is his vision or that of his replacement Dexter Fletcher. I think most likely it is that of executive producer Brian May. It was after all May who caused former star and director Sasha Baron Cohen to leave the project. Cohen wanted the movie to be an R-rated realistic look at Mercury's life. He was going to start the film with the eccentric star feasting on a giant pile of coke, Scarface-style. May clearly wanted the portrayal of his band to be cleaner and more family friendly and so we got the PG-13 TV movie I am reviewing. Strangely it was a massive box office smash hit which I can only attribute to the love Queen's music still garners in the public.
It's not a bad movie (but the music is really the only great thing about it) and we've heard these songs hundreds of times already on the radio, in sports arenas, and in other movies. In fact they gave Mike Myers a role as the bands producer because his decision to head bang to the titular song in
Wayne's World propelled it to No. 2 on the Billboard charts in 1992. It only reached No. 9 in the States upon it's original release.
Rami Malek is fine as Mercury, but he looks nothing like him. The false teeth he had to wear made his English accent more authentic I'm sure. There really isn't much reason to discuss the other characters in the film because they are two-dimensional and receive no back stories. Even Mercury's two loves, his wife and his male lover are barely in the film. We never see him engaged in drug use or sex. The fact that he is gay is really only hinted at and you don't even know when he actually started going to gay bars. Sasha Baron Cohen wanted to embrace Mercury's extreme lifestyle because let's face it, it would be entertaining. But this film portrays him as being a bit boring. It also changes history at every chance it gets to give the film more drama. For example, Queen never broke up, but they do in the film to make it seem like their performance at Live Aid was a reunion concert.
Not terrible, but not exciting,
Rhapsody will probably best be known as Bryan Singer's last film and for it's box office success.
3 Octaves Outta 5
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