Rocketman **** (2019, Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard, Steven Mackintosh, Gemma Jones, Stephen Graham) – Movie Review

Taron Egerton stars in Rocketman (2019) in a bravura performance as Reg Dwight, who nicks his new first name from his band mate Elton Dean and supposedly his new surname from John Lennon, though apparently it was actually from another band mate, Long John Baldry.

Ah well, don’t expect the whole truth, maybe just 50 per cent of it, in this musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John’s early years in the Seventies.

Dexter Fletcher directs in his second in a row biographical movie about a music icon after completing the work on Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). He must be a good choice for director, because the film moves along super-smooth, a difficult task with any kind of biopic. It all comes in at just two hours, keeping the film dynamic.  Lee Hall, known for Billy Elliot (2000), War Horse (2011) and Victoria & Abdul (2017), has made a grand job of the tricky job of writing the screenplay. It is fun, involving and thoughtful, but above all fun.

Billy Elliot‘s Jamie Bell plays Elton John’s long-term lyricist and friend Bernie Taupin, Richard Madden plays Elton John’s lover and manager John Reid, Bryce Dallas Howard and Steven Mackintosh play mum and dad, Gemma Jones plays gran, and Stephen Graham plays John’s first manager Dick James. All of them are fine, though they don’t get much of a look in, and even though some of them are playing unsympathetic, unforgiving roles (particularly the lover/ manager and the mum and dad. There’s a slight feeling of chickens coming home to roost.

They don’t get much of a look in because it is Taron Egerton’s show, giving it his all, brilliant as a bewildered desperate little lad in a big man’s world. Take back Rami Malek’s perplexing Best Actor Oscar for Bohemian Rhapsody and give it to Egerton immediately!

It goes without saying that Rocketman runs pretty much through the entire Elton John songbook, with many well staged toe-tapping numbers. It is hard to get them out of your head for days afterwards. This is pretty much a full-on musical, just as the 2019 Aladdin is, though both try to masquerade as something else as musicals are still largely out of favour in the cinema. As yes, Rocketman is categorised as a ‘music biographical drama’.

There is a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll, but there is also a nice serious side to this film, the thoughtful side. It is there though, but not hammered home, with lots of food for thought for those who wish to think, or not for those who don’t. The film is just gay enough, but that is plenty gay. It is the Elton John Story. It is the fun, happy gay, after the long struggle for love and affection.

It cost quite a lot at $40,000,000, but most of that must have been spent on the wigs and the costumes!

Taron Egerton won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, but was snubbed at the Oscars with even a nomination.

Elton John and Bernie Taupin won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Motion Picture Original Song for ‘I’m Gonna Love Me Again’.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com