Entertaining but fanciful soft-focus 'biopic' of legendary showman

Rating: 7/10 (11 October 2019)

A young artist struggles with family, passions, and demons to become one of the top acts in the world as his personal life disintegrates - a true(ish) story but nothing new. Taron Egerton is quite good as glittery soft-rock king Elton John but I found the framing device (an older John reminiscing while in therapy) gimmicky. There are a lot of memorable songs presented in a number of ways (sometimes sung all or in part by secondary characters) but not a lot of real/recreated footage of John's massive stage shows (the famous Dodger Stadium concert is recreated in part, one of the best scenes in the film). Like "Bohemian Rhapsody' (2018) (the Freddie Mercury biopic with which 'Rocketman' is inevitably compared), the film deviates from the facts at times for dramatic effect (allegedly the harsh portrayal of John's father was inaccurate and unfair). Given the fantasy look of the film, viewers will likely not expect documentary verisimilitude but overall the film comes off as a bit of a vanity puff-piece, not surprising considering John himself was executive producer and had been pushing for the film for decades. While I didn't really like the film's structure, the filmmakers should be given credit for trying to do something different with a well-worn storyline.