Rocketman Film Review - Dexter Fletcher Directs Taron Egerton In Elton John Crystals As He Hits A Dodgers Home Run

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2019)

Having helmed Bohemian Rhapsody to Oscar success Dexter Fletcher is once again in mission control for Rocketman, with Taron Egerton donning the platforms and glasses. In 2013 I saw Sunshine On Leith, Dexter's first film, and loved it. He clearly has a handle on musicals. Giving plenty of the old razzle dazzle. Exactly what Elton John has. Funnily on holiday recently I met a guy who had actually been at school with Elton; then the young Reginald Dwight from Pinner. Was he always someone that stood out?, could you tell he would be a star? I asked. In fact he thought that Reg was just a fat kid with glasses who had no foreseeable signs of greatness. Well looks can be deceiving because look at him now. I may one day even forgive Elton for that shameful Snickers advert. That may have broken my heart!
Taron was excellent, as were all the kids as Reggie. I first saw Taron in Eddie The Eagle, then Kingsman, Sing and recently in Robin Hood. He has the voice and isn't afraid to don the feathers for a romp through Elton's back story. The script by Lee Hall and produced by David Furnish was always going to be sympathetic to Elton. But this is no Pg-13 story, as Elton said, his life was R rated, and there's no hiding in a chicken suit; he wants it to be told. And promptly checks his tangerine ass into an AA dream.
Unsurprisingly the film has the feel of Billy Elliot, also written by Lee Hall, with a gorgeous rousing bop through the mean streets of middle-class Pinner. (My old stamping ground!). Elton's fantasy started with talent, a tune picked out on a piano by Matthew Illesley as the young Reg, and a Gran, played by Gemma Jones, who was interested in her grandson. Mum played by a love starved and almost unrecognisable Bryce Dallas Howard, and an emotionally clipped war damaged father played by Steven Mackintosh, almost sink Reggie's early promise. Singing their own solos of unhappiness. And with his start in life Elton deserves every joy he now has. Shy young Reggie just wants a hug.
A tinkle on the ivories by Kit Connor as the teenage Reggie at the Royal Academy of Music, and a nice moment with Harriet Walter, playing her classical piece by ear, what a precocious talent he was even then, leads Reg to rock and roll and adulthood, where Saturday Night Is Alright For Fighting. And a life on the road with a band.
Lovely Charlie Rowe as Ray Williams gives the reinvented Elton an envelope of lyrics in his bosses Denmark Street office, see if you can make something of these. Songwriter Bernie Taupin is Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell and they come up with songs. Dick puts them in front of his boss, the terrific Stephen Graham's Dick James, of Dick James Music. Their music is rubbish, but Dick, pushed by Ray, sees potential. With Your Song they're on a trip to LA, and gigs at the wildly flamboyant Tate Donovan's Troubadour club. The stakes couldn't be higher, with Elton locked in the toilet and pop genius's in the audience. But he takes off as the gig defies gravity. If it feels emotional it's because it is, the papers are full of Elton's success, and he storms the charts.
Bernie is the songwriter in the shadows, I know nothing about him, I guess that's the way he wants it. Elton is the flamboyant showman with diamond shoes, loving and loved by his lifelong writing partner, even after they (never) row. And while Jamie's Bernie was a straight A kind of guy, I vehemently disliked John Reid, a dastardly Richard Madden. In this R rated film of Elton's life, this guy was a Class A dick. But a totally believable dick, the manager muscling everyone else out, and in his sharp suit getting his 20% of flesh, in more ways than one. The same guy from the Bohemian Rhapsody story. A real Killer Queen. And pushing Elton to the limit. But there is no spending limit, Elton is a millionaire. And forcing him to come out to his mother, who like all mothers, already knew, but condemns his lifestyle choice to a life of never being loved. And sending him in his Rolls round to the now happily re-married, once more with feeling for old times sake Dad?, okay still stiff upper-lip father.
The music of the partnership plays like a greatest hits jukebox, that accurately, naturally!, matches the highs and lows of Elton's life. The melody of a tune we all know, tried out for the first time on a piano. How amazing that Elton could see the notes to fit Bernie's words. And how emotionally stilted were those around who couldn't see him.
In my youth I remember 'I'm Still Standing' as my first intro to Elton John, with the video and jazz man outfit, Taron edited into the original, and the unhappy first wedding that added respectability to the flamboyant Elton. John Reid whispering in his ear again. Funnily it was 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' with Kiki Dee that brought Elton and John together again, after their first meeting in LA.
All of Elton's music is virtually on repeat on the radio so feels so fresh. And because I don't remember them the first time around, I don't care about the ipad shuffle of songs and dates as much as the purists. It's as if they were written only yesterday, and yet Elton has been a titan of the music industry for 50 or so years. His life has been one of strops and petulance, with Class A wild living and sex orgies, and trying anything once, as he swallow dives into the pool! And yet what a man that has made him. Maybe he was never really there. But Bennie and the Jets would beg to differ. He used to be so wild, but now we can call him Sir.
With costumes by Julian Day, from the black and white childhood to the fun you can see he had recreating those wild designs, as Taron looked so precious in over a million Swarovski crystals. Gorgeous cinematography by George Richmond and music by Matthew Margeson. Riffing on Elton's back catalogue down the yellow brick road.
An outrageous technicolour ode to excess with Dorothy ruby platforms, and I loved it.