Good Music, Great Performance, but Unnecessary Gay Shaming

Rating: 7/10 (7 November 2018)

GRADE: B-
THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED.
IN BRIEF: The only Queen in this sanitized but entertaining biography of Freddy Mercury is the band itself. So much for the true story of a bisexual icon.
JIM'S REVIEW: Bohemian Rhapsody avoids the facts in its retelling of gay icon, Freddy Mercury, and his band Queen. Rather than depict his sex and drug crazed world which included his bisexuality and addiction to cocaine, it purports to tell his biography well within its PG-13 rating in a strictly sanitized way. The film plays fast and loose with the facts and the time lines don't quite gel. Director Bryan Singer focuses on the band and its early years to stardom (1970 to 1985) with only hints of the tragic consequences that will affect the group. (Mr. Mercury died of AIDS in 1991, one day after he announced to his fans that he contracted this fatal disease. The film never gets to that era choosing rather to go out on a high note, Queen's LIVE AID concert in 1979. The usual title card summaries his and the band's final years.)
All of Queen's music is there, with its glitz and hard rock glam, as is the star turn by its lead singer, acted to perfection by Rami Malek (More on this actor's performance later.). The film vividly captures that rock era and creates concert footage that emulates the band and its theatricality. But the script by Anthony McCarten is unfortunate. It is conventional storytelling of an unconventional subject that tries to cover too much as it covets one cliche after the next.
Typically seen, as in most musical film biographies, are the group's rise from obscurity, their early successes, band fall-out due to too much fame and fortune, relationships undone, etc. In fact, the only new creative detour, and it's not a good one, is the subtle gay shaming that occurs throughout the movie. Most gay characters are depicted as villainous or amoral stereotypes. The film purposely downplays Mr. Mercury's interest in same sex relationships, except for his male love interest who is introduced at the tail end of the film. This may be more accepting to a majority of audience members, but it is a dishonest and unnecessary approach to Mr. Mercury's life.
Instead, the film emphasizes his healthy heterosexual "the love of his life", his wife, Mary Austin (well played by Lucy Boynton). While this relationship lasted a long time and ended due to his infidelity, the film celebrates their passion while almost completely avoiding his sexual identity.
All in all, the film is generally well acted with fine supporting turns by Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joe Mazzello as the bandmates. An unrecognizable Mike Myers. Aidan Gillen, and Allen Leech round out the cast. But for this film to work, a central performance that captures Freddy Mercury's stage persona must be literally center stage. And Bohemian Rhapsody has that at its core in Mr. Malek's terrific portrayal. With an overbite large enough to chew up any scenery, Mr. Malek wisely shows some restraint in his backstory, filling in the many gaps in an overstuffed script that enjoys contrivance over realism. He shows the singer's conceit very well and addresses his vulnerability with his scenes with family members. The actor saves the strutting for his lip-synched imitation of the lead singer on stage and is very convincing, especially in an exciting conclusion of a 12 minute Queen concert in which my movie audience instinctively sang along.
If only the filmmakers of Bohemian Rhapsody followed their movie's own tagline: Fearless Lives Forever than hide behind a cardboard cutout of a musical legend who deserved a more honest and accurate treatment. They assembled a strong cast but let them and their film bite the dust.