A Watering-Down of a Well-Earned Legacy

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 2019)

While this was a great year for music films big and small -- from the affecting "A Star Is Born (2018)" to the sweetly comfortable "Hearts Beat Loud (2018)" to the darkly raunchy music industry satire "Stadium Anthems (2018)" -- the box office behemoth that was "Bohemian Rhapsody" doesn't make that short list, and this despite having truly elite biographical material to mold from. It will always be a missed opportunity.
Let's concede that Rami Malek was able to ape Freddie Mercury to the absolute letter -- in fact his performance is in some ways made greater by its standing as the uncontested greatest attribute within an otherwise very intentionally compromised story. Because ultimately, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is not a product reflective of Queen's gritty and hard-hitting era, but instead fully embraces today's high sheen, honesty-be-damned times. And it just didn't have to be that way. Even the film's bolder aspirations are squashed by unnecessary interference from awkward depictions of untruthful shortcuts designed to placate a mass audience. Take the oft-heralded recreation of the band's legendary set at LiveAid: Indeed, so much care is taken to get that right, including the admirably un-Hollywood risk of reproducing that performance in full. Yet their set isn't actually left to play out in its consuming glory as advertised; instead, it's shamelessly intercut with goofball images of a phone bank in which LiveAid organizer Bob Geldolf glumly looks over a group of customer service reps with phones that at one moment are silent, but within seconds of Queen's set begin ringing triumphantly en masse. The sad insinuation is made that no other acts were able to solicit phone calls until Queen went on, and that once they did, viewers readily interrupted their own consumptions of the performance to desperately make 1-800-calls in real-time (!). "Bohemian Rhapsody" is filled with many such patronizing and irresponsible creative decisions.
Queen's trust and estate has surely bankrolled from "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a film, and as a catalyst for sparking renewed interest in the band's catalog and continued live performances. But in terms of legacy, the choices here feel terribly thin and short-sighted. Here's hoping that at end-of-life, the members of Queen who outlasted Mercury won't be consumed by the existential regret of having documented their band's legitimate glory with this distorted and saccharine veneer of their well-earned lives. - (Was this review of use to you? If so, let me know by clicking "Helpful." Cheers!)