Malek's Performance Alone Is Truly Amazing. This Will Propel The Queen Legacy.

Rating: 8/10 (8 November 2018)

I couldn't help thinking watching Bohemian Rhapsody that movies about bands are generally boring and for the dyed in the wool fans. Bohemian Rhapsody was anything but. The sole reason for than as well as the movie is the singularly unique Freddie Mercury. Watching the film I easily could believe Rami Malek was Freddie Mercury. That's a huge win. However the movie kind of drags the viewer down by keying on Mercury's inner identiy crisis and how it made him a tortured and lonely man. I think there is so much more to cover so we see Mercury as being over the top in everything and not just a amazingly talented sad soul. I have to think he rode the tiger in everyway and he had many heights besides just his chart-topping world success as lead singer of Queen. Sure some of it was off-putting for the average person, but it was who he was and he wasn't just a superstar floundering around off stage.
The movie doesn't try to cover all you might want to know about Mercury, but it does give us the Cliff Notes of how he and his bandmates began. The begining, while compact, gets the message across that here was a once in a generation talent, not unlike the earlier Elvis, that was so talented as complete entertainer things happened fast. Against this backdrop of furious success was Mercury's early years of not exactly fitting in at school, a very brittle relationship with his father, and his wobbly orientation with the opposite sex. This was a kind of crucible from which Freddie needed the audience and a kind of unconditional acceptance. It was a very real addiction and we all know addictions have plenty of pitfalls. And, for a moment Freddie did seek a degree of normalcy. Mercury did experience joy becoming engaged to a beautiful woman. Remember though Mercury has some inner turmoil as to how he processes relationships with the opposite sex. Eventually his relationship disolves romantically when he realizes he is at least bi-sexual (probably his own lie to keep from admitting he was outright gay). As all of this is occurring his fame and wealth is ever increasing. Instead of being overjoyed by success, plus freed by his coming to terms with his sexuality, it seems to begin a protracted period of lunacy and knowing loneliness. Calling Queen his family helped to insulate him from the crouching tiger, for a while.
That's the setup and then the movie really gets sad. You might think Mercury rarely enjoyed himself while taking ever more risky behaviors. I must believe we purposely don't see how high Freddie rode prior to his decline in health. By most reports he was indulging boundlessly, chasing ever more crazy highs. While we hardly see this we do get it that the resulting aftermath was close to a mental breakdown resulting in a protracted hiatus of Queen as a band. True, Queen never broke up, but they broke down due to Freddie's increasing problems. Malek made Mercury live again, so much so it was scary to watch all the known mannerisms..
This movie is quite technically excellent. All of the actors bring the band Queen back to life as we might have seen them at the various times of their career. The singing must be Freddie as it as real as anything you've ever heard. The lip-syncing and band playing is such that you suspend belief as Queen with Mercury once more lives.. The ending has a sort of amazing vindication with real joy. So why is Bohemian Rhapsody more than good, utimately sad, and full of holes as to so much of Freddie Mercury's happy times? Because the bottom line is overwhelmingly sad that such a talent was tormented, lonely, and gone so soon. This may not be the movie everyone wanted, but it's the story we see could logically end as it did. It would be impossible to get such a colorful character wholly so we get what makes sense of the journey of Queen through the amazing character of Freddie Mercury. I believe it achieves what May and Taylor wanted us to see and it will most definitely reach a broad audience who won't be repulsed by things that may well be left to the imagination, but will preserve the greatness that Mercury was so very responsible for. It will, again, revive their musical legacy even propelling yet another generation of fans. As such a movie definitely worth going to see.