musical biography of superstar

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2019)

Way back in 1998, my wife and I saw Elton John with about 18,000 other fans. We had the "cheap" $50 seats on the side of the stage. He stayed at his baby grand piano during the entire two hour concert, so his back was turned to us, but we were only about 30 meters away from. To see his face, we had to watch the giant TV monitors. He wore a pink suit, which was quite restrained for him as opposed the costumes shown in the new movie, but the pants split and he had to change clothes. He was sober by this time and drank at least three Diet Cokes during his performance.
This film is a musical biography showing his life as a child up to the time when he went into rehab and gave up all his addictions (drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.) except for shopping. The group therapy sessions in rehab provide a framing story. Taron Edgerton is excellent as the star, and he even did his own singing. John's real name was Reginald Dwight (played as a boy by Matthew Illesley and as an adolescent by Kit Conner), but neither of his two parents (Bryce Dallas Howard, Steve Mackintosh) shows him or each other any love or affection, although he may have inherited his love of music from his father. Fortunately, he had Ivy, a nurturing grandmother played by Gemma Jones. John was a piano prodigy who attended the Royal Academy of Music. His career took off when he was still a teenager after his record label paired him with Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) to write lyrics which John put to music. Their friendship forms the emotional core of the movie, although Bernie tells John early on that he is straight. After they become successful, John Reid (Richard Madden, who played Robb Stark in Game of Thrones coincidentally) becomes John's personal manager and lover. Unfortunately, this relationship and John's addictions led John and Taupin to becoming estranged for a time. The music is excellent, of course, although some of the numbers have different arrangements than what we are used to hearing and are presented in a different chronological order that they really occurred. Although John, now 72 years old and sober for the past 28, and his husband are executive producers, this is a "warts and all" story. I don't know how accurate the details are, although some reviewers have pointed out discrepancies with the historical record. The scenes in which characters burst into song and dance were obviously fantasies but entertaining ones.