Hello Yellow-Brick Road......A Cinematic Gem!

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2019)

Before seeing Dexter Fletcher's brilliant biopic, Rocketman, I thought that Elton John's life was glitz, glamour, and, of course, unfortunate hair.... As it turns out, I was only half right. To my great surprise, what I thought would be a Mamma Mia-esque romp through John's songbook turned out to be an unflinching exposé of the largely difficult life that John has led - a man who welcomed fame with open arms, but who has also paid the price for it many times. If there was any doubt before, Rocketman confirms that John's on-screen avatar, Taron Egerton, of Kingsman fame, is a star. He shows both the intense vulnerability of Elton John the man, and the bravura of Elton-John, the bedecked on-stage megastar.
The film begins with Egerton as John, sitting among comparably average members of a support group, sometime in the 1980s, as he recounts his life thus far and confronts the problems which have almost derailed his career, many of which hark back to difficult relationships in childhood and early adulthood. Without spoiling too much, there is an emotional, cathartic moment towards the end of the film where John confronts a series of apparitions in turn, an experience through which he is able to find some sort of closure and which enables him to confirm that "I'm Still Standing".
It is evident, therefore, that this film is not for the faint-hearted. It does not shy away from portraying drug-use, sex, and, instances of mental and physical abuse. But, as Elton John himself recently said after censors threatened to cut certain scenes, "I have not led a PG-13 life". This film could not be more timely in its exploration of one man's personal problems in an age in which we are belatedly breaking the taboos surrounding mental health. How humbling for John to show us that even megastars are fallible human beings. Considering this, I found the closing intertitles about John's life now, detailing his charity work and family life, overly sentimental. However, that is a small criticism in an otherwise fine piece of cinema.
Egerton's co-stars are all brilliant, notably Jamie Bell who plays John's long-suffering musical collaborator, Bernie Taupin. Finally, checking out the film's soundtrack release is also a must - Egerton singing as Elton John is wonderfully uncanny.