It's an entertaining movie, but don't go expecting to find true facts.

Rating: 5/10 (6 November 2018)

What bothers me about director Bryan Singer moving facts around is that there is an entire generation who will assume that this film is a "true story." It is not. It is BASED on a true story. I absolutely understand that in filmmaking, sometimes you have to compress time, obviously you have to re-create/create dialogue, and sometimes you just simply make it up to make the story either fit in a time frame or get across the essence of what you are trying to tell. While Rami Malek's performance is terrific, I really did not feel that he captured Freddie's essence. Nor did he capture the relationship between Freddie and Mary. (Not Malek's fault, but the fault of the director and the script.) Sure, he may have showed Freddie's dependence on Mary (played delightfully by Lucy Boynton), but he (Singer) barely gave us enough time with them together for us to see why he was so dependent on her friendship. That she helped dress him once and put make-up on his eyes once, is that it? She lived next door when they broke up, she worked in his music publishing company, still lives in his house that he left her . . . has to be a LOT more there than just a passing whim. Gwilym Lee's performance actually deserves the Oscar here I felt like I was actually watching Brian May and not an actor. Recalls Val Kilmer's Jim Morrison quite vividly. It is worth seeing, just please don't go thinking that you now know and understand Freddie and Queen. While Brian May and Roger Taylor were given executive producer credit, this does NOT mean that they had any real say in the final script or the filming and this should be remembered. The film was worth spending my money on and I did enjoy watching it, but as a Queen from the beginning (in my life, I have only purchased about 10 vinyl albums with Night at the Opera and Day at the Races among the first purchases I made in the 70s - and I was rather thought an odd duck because I loved their music so very much), I think there was MUCH more to Freddie than this film is willing to give us. It kind of goes a little sideways. I'd much rather watch the real Live Aid performance on youtube, so that part was hardly worth the wait. Pleasant enough and pleased to see they didn't try to get Malek to sing but had him lipsynch instead so that was a relief.