Excellent casting and convincing reenactments of a legendary performer

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2018)

Rami Malek makes an excellent Freddie in appearance, build, mannerisms, and speech. From the previews alone, I felt like the only thing lacking was that Rami's face wasn't a close enough resemblance to Freddie's, but after seeing the movie, for a few particular scenes (about one-third of the time), I had to look twice since I almost thought I was looking at Freddie Mercury himself. That said, there were other times where it wasn't as convincing (perhaps two-thirds of the time). I think that mainly Freddie had a slightly larger face/jaw, and his eyes weren't as sunken as Rami's. But face out of view, Rami's back shots at the Live Aid concert reenactment were very convincing and could easily pass for Freddie's. Rami's performance for the Live aid scenes was also really very good, but if you re-watch Freddie's actual performance at Live Aid, you'll be blown away by Freddie's power, confidence, and charisma on stage-- honestly not topped by any other live performer to this day.
As for Rami's portrayal of Freddie's speaking voice, I thought he nailed the British accent and his other speech mannerisms. However, the false upper front teeth were slightly distracting as they seemed to slightly interfere with Rami's speech toward the beginning of the movie when he was just getting used to acting with them (assuming they shot those scenes earlier). My only other criticism would be that he spoke a bit hoarser/raspier than Freddie. Ironically, for someone who drank and smoked and who could sing with a lot of rasp when he wanted to, Freddie had a speaking voice that was normally very smooth and fluid rather than hoarse or grainy. In the end, though, I thought casting Rami as Freddie was the right choice.
For the singing vocals, I thought Marc Martel did an outstanding job matching Freddie's original vocal tracks that were used. Marc mentioned that he sang Freddie's parts in a way that you couldn't tell the difference between his and Freddie's, and while I was skeptical at the time at such a claim, I guess he really wasn't joking! I think I could mostly tell the difference, but to the untrained ear, it would be very difficult. The Happy Birthday song and other practice sessions, for example, were likely Marc's, while I could recognize Freddie's tracks as taken straight from his album recordings for some of the songs due to his specific performance idiosyncrasies. And the Live Aid performance used Freddie's original vocals without a doubt.
The casting of the other members of Queen was also mostly spot-on. At least, Brian May's double looked, sounded, and acted just like Brian May! And John Deacon's actor also looked a lot like JD, especially in the face. Roger Taylor's double was slightly less convincing, and his voice was also not as raspy/breathy as RT's, but there was still a resemblance to a younger RT. Mary Austin's character was a pretty good look-alike, and so was Jim Hutton's. I'm sure the list goes on. As I said in the title, the casting was one of the strong points of the film.
I liked how they included Freddie's family (parents and sister), and how they emphasized Freddie's unremitting work ethic, both of which were mostly realistic. It was also really neat to see how Freddie might have come up with his ideas for some of his songs, which they interspersed throughout. I thought the portrayal of his sexuality was also appropriately handled and objective. Unlike what Sacha would have probably done if cast, they didn't over-emphasize his gay side or downplay his love for Mary, although they didn't ignore his promiscuity either.
Overall, they tried their best to throw in little bits about Freddie's life that fans would catch, even though they did take some liberties, as often happens in movies. For example, Freddie's conversation with Mary about his sexuality is accurate (based on Mary's interviews), inasmuch as Freddie says he's bisexual, and Mary replies saying she thinks he's just gay. However, Freddie had likely prefaced it differently than in the movie, saying that he had something to tell her that would change their relationship forever. In another example, they cite his famous "musical prostitute" line, but Freddie originally said this during a 1984 interview, not during a press conference as in the movie. They throw in his line about "four aging queens" as another fan reference, but it was taken from his 1986 Wembley concert. In yet another example, they have Freddie's character sing his iconic "hey-oh" line during one of the concerts before Live Aid, although I'm fairly sure Live Aid was the first time he did that. He then did a reprise of it at his '86 Wembley concert.
There were also some things there were entirely fictitious. The whole Ray Foster scene with the rock thrown through his window was entirely made up. Ray Foster wasn't even a real person, although it was fun to see Mike Myers sneak in with a brief cameo. The only truth to the scene is that there were concerns about Bohemian Rhapsody's length in airing on the radio. Also, the band never had a dramatic break-up as is portrayed. The band were all burnt out at the time and they gladly decided it was time for a break. So there was never any Freddie begging back in either. The whole break up/make up bit was contrived for the film.
They never showed any part of the '86 Wembley concert or Rami wearing Freddie's iconic yellow jacket with white striped pants. There were a lot of things they left out that I thought would have been neat if they featured. '86 Wembley was one, and another would have been a scene where Queen got stuck in an elevator. As Freddie humorously put it, they just heard that they were the #1 band in England on the charts, and they were going to suffocate in the bloody elevator! A third thing that would have been nice to see is Freddie's foray into the opera scene with his album Barcelona. This would have tied in nicely with the earlier scene where he plays the aria from Carmen as a primer for his idea for Bohemian Rhapsody. Another thing that would have been great is if they showed Freddie's parents Jer and Bomi turn to each other while watching the Live Aid concert and one of them say, "Freddie's done it!" As trite as that might sound here, it was supposedly what actually happened. I recommend Peter Freestone's biography for a more accurate story of Freddie's life. Peter was Freddie's chef and personal assistant. Come to think of it, where was Peter in the movie?
We also never saw Freddie's health deteriorate, to the point where he actually had to have his foot amputated. We didn't follow along with his drama of following medication regimen after medication regimen, only to still see his health decline, and then deciding to stop almost all medications entirely until his death. In my opinion, including this later chapter in Freddie's life would have made for much better drama than, say, band members fighting (Were Freddie and Roger really that verbally argumentative in real life?). It would have been equally dramatic and moving to see the arc of Freddie's character from peak fitness at Live Aid to frail and emaciated near the end. It would have been the perfect opportunity to dramatically juxtapose his powerful stage life with his deteriorating personal life. They do allude to this by showing him cough up blood (whether or not that actually happened), but they could have taken this much further than they left it. Emphasizing this decadence more would have made the story much more dramatic, as a similar formula was used by Shakespeare as well as Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray. In general the screenplay was a bit lackluster, but it wasn't that much worse than I was expecting it to be before coming in to see the film. That said, my plot expectations weren't that high to begin with.
The editing overall could have been a bit snappier at times, as it did seem to drag and loose steam toward the middle. I know that editors may do this to creating "breathing room" before building to the climax, but if the story noticeably drags, then some scenes should be shortened or cut out. I think if you are going to have a two hour movie as this one was, then you should definitely edit down the slower middle scenes, either to shorten the film's overall length, or to have the chance to add more substantial drama to the end along the lines of what I mention above. In either case, the impact of the film would have been increased.
Overall, I enjoyed this movie and would recommend others to see it. They definitely tried to please the fans and gave the movie a biographical feel, even though not everything was entirely or chronologically accurate. (There were numerous points throughout that left me asking, "Did that really happen?") While I feel there were some missed opportunities, I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of what did manage to make it into the film. As one of his big fans, it was flattering to see an entire high-budget movie made centered around Freddie Mercury as the protagonist. The cinematography and visual effects for the Live Aid climax alone were enough reason to see the movie. Also hearing Freddie's singing voice coming from behind the big screen was absolutely beautiful-- as was all of the music featured-- and was a welcome reminder of the greatness of his talent.
//
If you're curious, feel free to check out my own Freddie Mercury tribute video here: https://youtu.be/eFrSFMklQKQ