The Movie: Rocketman
The Director: Dexter Fletcher
The Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, Gemma Jones, Steven Mackintosh, Tom Bennett, Charlie Rowe
The Story: A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.
The Review:
If the music industry biopic is going to become a thing like it seems a lot of people want it to, there will need to be a lot more originality infused into the would be genre. This movie is very similar in a lot of ways to last year's Bohemian Rhapsody which told the tale of Queen front man Freddie Mercury, a man who had family issues, sexuality issues, drug use issues, and music industry issues.
All that same stuff is here in this movie about Elton John although told in a much more stylized way which absolutely suits the outrageous flair and panache of the seminal pop star singer. His rise to fame and subsequent dip into the treacherously deep waters of fame and fortune within the music industry are chronicled beautifully by director Dexter Fletcher and cinematographer George Richmond. It all looks smashing and the musical numbers are all a joy to see on the big screen, I just never really felt connected to the man or his story.
I will say that the biggest reaction many of us human beings will have is from what we see Elton John go through as a young boy being flat out ignored, isolated, and rejected by his parents. There are moments that are truly heartbreaking and frustrating and all of it will stir up a deep well of emotions if you ever felt anything like it yourself. All Elton ever wanted as a child was to be acknowledged and loved and apparently his parents made every effort to deny him those very specific and oh so important things.
Taron Egerton is about as perfect for the role as anyone could ever be and from what I understand, he has idolized the icon for most of his life and has become quite the singer himself. In fact, Egerton sings all the songs himself in the movie and actually had a chance to sing alongside his hero at one point during the marketing push for the film.
Rocketman is fun, it's entertaining, and it has a lot of emotions so yeah, go check it out. You will most likely enjoy the heck out of it.
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