Movie's Not As Wonderfully Weird As The Band

Rating: 6/10 (9 November 2018)

Inimitable rock band Queen and their once-in-a-lifetime front-man Freddie Mercury have stood apart from the fray of classic rock artists by two royally distinct attributes: their bombast and their weirdness. Their bombast, as represented by the giant guitar crunches in "Fat Bottomed Girls" or the soaring choral harmonies in "We Are the Champions", is on full display in Bohemian Rhapsody. Unfortunately, their weirdness, as represented by the opera influences in "Bohemian Rhapsody" or the uncharacteristic rockabilly in "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", is sorely missing.
The film focuses on Mercury specifically, from his early days with the band in college, through their unlikely assent into worldwide superstardom, to his final days fighting AIDS. Obviously, the casting of Mercury is crucial, and Rami Malek is flamboyant, magnetic and downright incredible. His movements and personality are Mercury through-and-through, and the pain underneath his larger-than-life aura is beautiful. It's a cliché, but I honestly got lost in his performance to the point of forgetting it wasn't Freddie himself I was watching.
As for the film in whole, it's a typical, sing-by-numbers, greatest-hits version of a musical biopic. If you've seen any number of other similar films (Ray, Straight Outta Compton, Walk the Line), then you know the type: setup the sad family/home life, hit the career highlights, present a downfall, then finally crescendo into a final celebration. It's a formula as old as G chord - C chord - D chord - repeat. Still, Bohemian Rhapsody uses its formula well. And when it narrows in on the music of Queen itself, all complaints are thrown away in favor of sheer swaggering enjoyment.