A tribute rather than a biographical look at the life of a musical genius

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2019)

My first introduction to the music of Queen/Freddie Mercury was the soundtrack to 'Highlander (1986)' and the song, 'Who wants to live forever'.
I thought it one of the most beautiful pieces of music I'd ever heard and still do... poignant but uplifting.
This movie has many of the qualities of that song - in that we all know how it's going to end - but it's the journey... that's the important thing... a little like 'Titanic'.
The film does not idolise Freddie Mercury - it presents him as he would have liked (I believe) to have been presented - a man of many layers, of many faults but also with many great facets.
Freddie Mercury was renown for his partying - for his excesses - for pushing the boundaries... but he was also a man of conviction. kind and generous to a fault.
Rami Maleks' portrayal was flawless - he manages to capture the true essence of a man struggling with his sexual identity, struggling to find a balance between love and passion and struggling to put all of this to music.
I do believe that the film goes 'over the top' when it comes to giving pretty much all of the credit for Queens success to Freddie - May, Taylor and Deacon were great contributors to the band and without their talents I don't think it would have been nearly that successful.
Lucy Boynton played an excellent role - neither timid nor overly-strident - just the right level of supportive role that wouldn't take the spotlight away from the extraordinary performance from Rami Malek.
For all intents and purposes - all of the cast were mere supporting roles for the main star and you get zero depth of character from any of them... just an almost fawning desire to keep 'Freddie' happy and producing.
You get no strong sense of camaraderie, friendship or trust - they were as 1 dimensional as you'll ever get in a 2 dimensional medium.
This is not to say that they played their roles badly - just that they we're never, probably, given any true insights into the actual dynamics of the band - why spoil the the myth?
All in all - the film is not a 'biopic' - it's not looking to idolise Freddie Mercury or present him as other than he was (with the above in mind) - and to, perhaps, endear him to a new generation of fans.
Watch it - it's a good film!