Freddie’s sexuality (he says he’s bisexual though Mary tells him bluntly that he’s gay) is initially only indicated through backward glances at men the devastation of the AIDS crisis is played out on a couple of TV reports. The script is sometimes incredibly awkward, imparting information to get us up to speed with whatever year we’re up to in a film that spans a decade and a half. (Roger never looks any older, despite 15 years of rock star life and, worse from the point of view of ageing, having children.) The physical similarities between the actors portraying May, Taylor and Deacon are astonishing, and the characterisation – Roger (Ben Hardy) is petulant, John (Joseph Mazzello, always drawing the eye) is uninterested in the madness, May is the thoughtful peacemaker until you push him – is deft. The resemblance is uncanny – with prosthetic teeth to mimic Mercury’s overbite (Freddie had four extra incisors which he claimed gave him a much bigger vocal range), Malek also has Freddie’s upwards head tilt down to a tee. (Apparently Freddie’s singing voice is a mix of three people’s, including Malek’s.)īoynton is a supportive and knowing Mary (she reminded me of actress Sadie Frost), aware of what’s happening to her boyfriend before he does though once Queen hits the big time she has little to do apart from demonstrate Mary’s continued place in Freddie’s life: occasionally turning up, often with her boyfriend in tow, then going home again almost immediately. It’s an extraordinary, mesmerising performance of churning self-belief, swagger, loneliness, and fear and, crucially, Mercury’s ability to connect with all the other misfits just like him. It’s followed by a visit to EMI man Ray Foster (Mike Myers) as the band try to persuade him to release the six-minute Bohemian Rhapsody as a single (with a nod to Wayne’s World). The band refuses to be confined to one genre but it’s Freddie who’s most committed to this with Roger forced to sing a falsetto GALILEO! so many times during recording the tape nearly wears out. They squabble over silly things, write classic songs and overrun by weeks thanks to Freddie’s perfectionism. The album recording is a microcosm of band life. It’s a heady trajectory, and a familiar one. The film follows the band through their worldwide success, the recording of album A Night At The Opera, Freddie’s estrangement from them, his destructive relationship with leech-like manager Paul Prenter (a creepily jealous Adam Leech), and his showy lifestyle. But as Queen becomes more successful Freddie retreats from her (though his sexuality is only hinted at for a long time). His girlfriend Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), who works in fashion emporium Biba, loves his style and helps him with clothes and make-up he’s madly in love and they even get engaged. Soon Freddie is on stage with them, adding a layer of ambiguous glamour and style to their rock songs. He’s living at home but his father can’t understand why he’s out every night, and warns him to make sure his life is made up of “good thoughts, good words, good deeds”.įreddie meets Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and Brian (a mostly steady and occasionally hilariously subversive Gwilym Lee) behind a club, moments after their lead singer quits. When we first meet Freddie (Rami Malek) as a teenage art student he’s already started using that name in place of his birth name Farrokh. Later when Queen guitarist Brian May writes We Will Rock You, he explains it’s because he wants to write a song the audience can participate in and feel part of, with the foot-stamping and the timed hand-clapping. The songs are incredible, the recreations of their shows envy-inducing if you never saw them live. It lovingly showcases Queen’s creative processes – arguments, teasing, and threats of coffee maker-throwing included and their connections with their fans, seeing themselves as a family of misfits playing to other outcasts. Still, I fully expect the public to take Bohemian Rhapsody to their hearts partly through nostalgia and partly because, like Freddie, it’s an enjoyable crowdpleaser. They’re not ignored entirely but they deserve way more exploration and thoughtfulness than they get. Now Bohemian Rhapsody is facing criticism (including from me) for glossing over key elements of Freddie Mercury’s life, from the crazy parties to his sexuality and his death from AIDS. The Greatest Showman was criticised on release (including from me) for what it left out about the real-life man, and the suspiciously clean nature of Victorian America yet the film went on to be hugely successful, currently enjoying a second life as a singalong show. The Greatest Showman, they could have called this, had that title not already been taken – but I suspect in the long run Bohemian Rhapsody will have quite a lot in common with Hugh Jackman’s biopic of PT Barnum.
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