Bohemian Rhapsody

Synopsis: The story of the legendary rock music band Queen and its lead singer Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek).

You’ve got to hand it to Rami Malek. To undertake playing one of pop music’s most iconic figures would have been both flattering and courting an ignominious disaster (Sacha Baron Cohen was originally slated to play the role but left the production dues to the usually cited “creative differences”) but although a little on the short side the American-born actor pulls it off (so to speak) handsomely (he won the 2019 Best Actor Oscar for his trouble).

For that matter the film, which is done no favours by its schlocky trailer, is surprisingly good. This is because it is a very much like a narratively–packaged greatest hits album and there are enough of them, all presented with distinctive  flair to make the film a crowd-pleaser. Less commendably, the “based on a true story” film plays fast and loose with the truth most notably in having Freddie discover that he had AIDS prior to the 1985 Live Aid concert when, in reality he wasn’t diagnosed until 1987. The ruse successfully adds pathos but, c’mon guys, that’s just cheating. In a general sense it also takes a very ‘hands-off’ approach to Freddie’s gayness which, his camping aside, remains throughout the film off-camera, his sexual relationship with manager Paul Prenter (Allen Leech) being only obliquely addressed.

For the rest Queen follows a tried and true path in depicting the history of the band or more accurately, Mercury, between 1970 and 1985.  The rest of the band, John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello), Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), and Brian May (Gwilym Lee) in a way appropriately for rock n’roll, are largely foils to their flamboyant frontman although particularly in the case of Deacon and May the physical resemblances are uncanny and this helps with the verisimilitude. Less satisfyingly handled is Freddie’s relationship with Mary Austin his sometime girlfriend and the “love of his life” (to whom he left his estate on his death in 1991) is merely sketched in. As Austin, Lucy Boynton who was so captivating in 2015’s charming Sing Street does little more than look wistful.

Although the band continued until 1988, the film ends with an impressive recreation of the band’s legendary 1985 Live Aid performance (except for “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “We Will Rock You” which are featured elsewhere in the film) combining the original audio with the new footage.

At the end of the day you could simply play Queen’s greatest hits album or get onto Youtube and you wouldn’t be seriously worse off but given that it is what it is Queen is enjoyable enough. 

FYI: Mike Myers who famously used “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Wayne’s World (1992) plays Ray Foster the music executive who refused to release the song as a single.

Director Bryan Singer was fired apparently because of frequent absences and clashes with other members of the production team and the last two weeks of the shoot, post-production, and reshoots were handled by Dexter Fletcher who had originally been chosen to direct the movie. DGA regulations gave sole directorial credit to Singer however and Fletcher is listed only as an executive producer.

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