It's trying to be magical, but I could see the strings

Rating: 6/10 (16 January 2020)

There is a scene towards the end of the movie in which young Reggie Dwight (Matthew Illesley) asks for a hug and finally receives one - from the grown up Elton John (Taron Egerton). That scene is a perfect illustration of why this film should have been great and why it ultimately didn't work for me. At its core Rocketman is by the numbers musician's biopic - early natural talent, meteoric rise to fame and fortune, alchohol and drugs, an abusive partner/manager that nearly gets him killed. I felt like I saw that same movie last year. Luckily for the filmmakers, Elton's songs not only provided ready chunks of the script, they also made those moments when characters burst into song almost organic. I cringed when characters other than Elton would start to sing though. This would work in a stage musical where you expect everyone to sing. And it does sometimes works in movies. Here it felt weird. The dance numbers, though disappointingly generic looking, did manage to illustrate the mood of the moment. Most of the time. The problem is that in order to make a movie that injects fantasy into reality like that one needs to do something akin to magic. There are times when the movie achieves precisely that, like the attempted suicide scene in the pool. But too often what we get are these obvious symbolisms, which I personally dislike. People lifted off their feet by Elton's performance. Elton gradually removing parts of his elaborate costume - he is peeling off the layers of fake persona and revealing the real person underneath. And the scene I mentioned in the beginning - Elton hugging his young self - look, he learned to love himself. It's like they are trying to do magic, but I could see the strings.