Rocketman: Film Review

Rocketman: Film Review

Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Richard Madden
Director: Dexter Fletcher

The musical biopic is so hot right now.

On the coat-tails of Bohemian Rhapsody, its global success and its unexpected awards success, it's no surprise that Rocketman arrives in cinemas with a weight of expectation.

With its more verite approach thanks to singing actors, rather than a performer miming, Dexter Fletcher re-teams with his Eddie The Eagle co-star Taron Egerton to take on the story of one Reg Dwight.

Beginning with the neglect in his childhood from his father and distant mother, to the discovery of his piano skills through to the tales of excess and stardom, Fletcher weaves an interesting tapestry of Elton John's life from the early years.

It's crowd-pleasing, conventional, and in the latter stages, somewhat camp, but never anything less than a spectacle.

Fletcher knows what the tropes of the genre are (early childhood adversity, self-doubt, midlife adversity, lovers adversity and ultimately self-acceptance) and skirts through them with ease.

At times, this is both a good and a bad thing for Rocketman, with the film feeling very much like outside of Elton John himself, it  skirts over some character edges, which is much to its detriment. (The only female character of note is John's grandmother).

Even the darkness of Elton John's life are given a light touch, but are never shied away from, as Fletcher pulls what could easily be a stage show, framed as it is with John's AA group confessional, into something that becomes a jukebox piece tale of acceptance, dishing out the hits when the energy hits a lull (as it does in the final third).

In truth, Rocketman is never better than when it's a balls-to-the-wall brazen musical.

From the younger version of Elton John bursting through a pub and segueing into Egerton's look to Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting, to John's Troubador club appearance in the US where the music literally lifts the audience through euphoria, via Pinball Wizard's swirling piano as the film shuffles through numerous outfits and John's need to be his on-stage persona cycles through, Fletcher's smart enough to deploy some visual flourishes to keep the film engaging as the energy levels teeter dangerously high to exuberant.

It's less successful in some of the more human elements - but not because of Egerton's efforts as Elton John.

Moments when Elton interacts with his stifled father desperate for love are given a tremendous resonance in their brief outings. And while Richard Madden brings a dangerous smouldering to his manager-cum-lover, it's Egerton who sells the relationship with the most subtle of touches.

Ultimately, much like Bohemian Rhapsody, it won't matter what critics make of Rocketman.

In places, it soars, a spectacle of a tried-and-tested story of acceptance; elsewhere, it's grounded. But audiences will adore its commitment to being crowd-pleasing, its desire to entertain and its salutation to the early part of the Elton John legacy.