Rocketman Review

Rocketman was directed by Dexter Fletcher and stars Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden and Bryce Dallas Howard.

The film is, of course, about the life of Elton John, starting with his early years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music to going on to have one of the biggest careers in the music industry. But it also deals with his personal life, some of his relationships with people, and the some of the struggles he faced during his life.

This film is full of good performances, but the standout has to be Taron Egerton as Elton John. I feel as if he found a good distinction between both sides of his character, he had to play the flamboyant singer and also the man with a rather serious and quite dramatic personal life. I thought he did both very well. I would also like to mention the performance of Bryce Dallas Howard as Sheila Eileen, Elton's mother. She had a very convincing English accent and played her part well, even if it was a bit clichéd.

The film was written by Lee Hall and what he has done here is to establish a balance between the traditions of the music biopic genre and the film's own ambitions that range from fantasy sequences with very dreamlike visuals, to high energy musical numbers. What impressed me most about the way this film was written was the balance of those two things and when the film chose to indulge in one of its more out-there aspects, it rarely got tiring, it just kept my interest due to how refreshing and unique it all was.

The film was shot by George Richmond and there are quite a few noteworthy shots, but the outstanding shots for me were when Elton levitates when playing the piano, and when (as a boy) he is conducting a choir in his room. These were impressive to me because they demonstrated how far the director was willing to push the musical fantasy ideas. And as members of the audience we are just left sitting there witnessing something that has never really been used in this genre before, and yet somehow it works.             

Apart from many Elton John songs. the incidental music was composed by Matthew Margeson and in the way of an original score not much is noticeable. A great deal of energy has been brought to the musical numbers and they never drag on for too long. Also, they always have something that will keep the attention of those who are fans of musicals and those who are not. I must mention the singing - Egerton sang all of Elton's songs himself and personally I thought he did a good job. I would like to mention that fact that even if you are not an Elton John fan, you can still appreciate the skill that went into the songs for the movie.

The one misgiving I had was this film's treatment of John Reid, Elton's manager. Firstly I want to make it clear that I enjoyed Richard Madden's performance but was unhappy with his portrayal as an out-and-out villain here, especially we recently saw the same character in Bohemian Rhapsody (played by a different actor) in which he was shown much more positively. I have concluded that it must be that the two clients had very different experiences of him, leading to what may be a historical inaccuracy.

The conclusions I draw from this are that Rocketman has good performances, especially from its lead; a script that finds a good balance between genre conventions and ambition; some interesting shots with cinematography that further those ambitions; and in music, some high-energy musical numbers and some well-sung covers of popular songs. And one puzzling inconsistency in the portrayal of key character compared with how appears in another vert recent film.

Having taken all my pros and cons into account, I'm going to give Rocketman…
B-

Thank you for reading.