Great depiction of an amazing life

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2019)

I had reservations about this film - Elton John himself and his husband David Furnish are producers, so I wondered, would it gloss over the tough and less savoury bits? I guess I don't know enough about the real story to say, but it did come across as a genuine and heartfelt yarn. And it's also an amazingly entertaining film - an element that too many biopics forget about. The director, Dexter Fletcher, and the writers take a risk in staging many musical and fantasy scenes, but in the end, they are very effective in telling the story in perhaps a more interesting way than a more conventional, linear film. Taron Egerton is fantastic as Elton. Chiefly, he has the energy and the vulnerability to portray the roller coaster of emotions Elton goes through, while he convincingly pulls off the showman element.
Although Elton is a superlative soul singer, which would be almost impossible to emulate. One of the cores of the film, to me, is the 'love story' of Elton's friendship with lyricist Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) who is frankly the most stable, rational, constant presence in Elton's life. It's kind of lovely. The second element that stunned me was Elton's abusive parents, Sheila and Stanley. The characters, played with devastating iciness by the under-rated Bryce Dallas Howard and Steven Mackintosh, manage to damage, but not stop, their talented son's rise to fame through their lack of love and the mum Sheila's assertion, when she learns Elton is gay, that he'll probably never be loved by anyone. Her reaction to Elton's struggles with drugs is to ask that he pay her to move far away, so she doesn't have to cope with the terrible newspaper headlines. His Dad, meanwhile, starts a new family and heaps love and affection on his young sons, while not showing any signs he wants Elton in his life. They are two devastating portrayals, and the real life pair are no longer alive to defend themselves. But if true, it makes Elton's success even more well deserved and hard earned.