How does one tell the tale that is the extraordinary life story of Elton John? What audiences get from director Dexter Fletcher with Rocketman is it, and the film is astonishing on every level.
Taron Egerton turns in the performance of his career. It is one that already has, for those of us who pontificate about such things, me thinking that the Oscar race for Best Actor is pretty much over before it started. Yeah, Egerton is that good. Elton John is a complicated character to capture, one made exponentially more challenging given the musical/fantasy mode that Fletcher has chosen to spotlight the personal and creative journey taken by one of pop culture’s most enduring and prolific icons.
John’s biopic is unlike any other cinematic musical chronicling of someone’s life you’ve ever seen. It stands on a level all its own. For a singer (and co-songwriter with his prolific pal Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell)) with such a tapestry of time honored and beloved hits, a complicated life (to say the least) and a flamboyance stage presence that dwarfs all those who came before and since, capturing that on screen in two hours had to be close to impossible. Thanks to screenwriter Lee Hall and director Dexter Fletcher (Eddie the Eagle), the tone, the feel, the colors, the dance numbers, the song arrangements … basically everything is bloody brilliantly and supremely pitch perfect.
The route that Fletcher took with John’s life is the stuff of inspired genius. His life story is told, essentially, through flashbacks via the superstar’s entering of rehab and addressing a support group. He recalls exactly how he got to this point in his life, and what a journey it is to behold. Through Rocketman we all get to experience it with all of the breathless highs and personally decimating lows in a manner that few films have managed to capture when chronicling someone’s life story.
Going back to his youthful days, when he was known as Reggie Dwight, the seeds of a sensational life are laid. They endearingly grow to a blazing trail as Dwight becomes Elton John and he achieves sonic fame unparalleled since The Beatles (he amassed 32 Top 10 singles). John had a absent father and a mother more concerned wit going out on the town than raising her boy. Luckily for him, his grandmother encouraged this child prodigy piano virtuoso. talent that would lead him to earn a full scholarship to the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. A moment that says so much with so little is his audition scene. That is all one needs to know about his talent. A young (who was merely 11) John only plays a portion of a piece. When the instructor calls him on it, he replies that that was all that she played. John’s performance was achieved simply by hearing it for the first time as performed by his soon-to-be mentor.
What else is expertly captured is the lifelong friendship/collaboration with lyricist Taupin. From first meeting through modern day, the John-Taupin tandem is as synonymous with hit-making as Lennon/McCartney. Sometimes it is truly difficult to convey something as cerebral as songwriting with a visual medium such as film. The manner in which it is portrayed in Rocketman is fast and furious. Taupin writes the lyrics and John simply “hears” the music and “has to get it out.” It was and is a prolific relationship that goes on to this day. These two are best mates and watching them make musical and movie magic together is beyond blissful joy.
Egerton and Bell are brilliantly matched, and their collaboration chemistry is a gift from heaven. Bell captures the nuances of the lyricist to John’s musical mastery in ways that are certainly worthy of Oscar notice. It is a performance that is firmly supporting, but as their friendship is in real life, it possesses a shared passion for greatness that commenced the moment they met. As seen in Rocketman it is a friendship that is utterly inspiring. We should all aspire to have friends as close, honest, dear and uplifting as Elton and Bernie are to with other.
Egerton, for his part, has encapsulated a cinematic version of John that befits the material and more importantly, the legend and his legacy. When the actor sang I’m Still Standing in Illumination’s Sing, John took notice. When Rocketman went from the script and concept stage to a full blown musical green light, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member smartly tapped Egerton to portray him. See, John wanted the person charged with bringing his life story to the screen to actually sing with their own voice and not lip synch, as was done by Rami Malek in Oscar winning fashion with Bohemian Rhapsody.
The Kingsman star exquisitely handles the John and Taupin catalog and does so with a panache that befits their songbook, while simultaneously making all the tracks his own. It’s an incredible and indelible performance that is for the ages. Arriving on the heels of Malek’s Oscar winning turn as Freddie Mercury, I sincerely hope that the world embraces what is achieved by the star of Rocketman as much as they did the Queen leader. When Egerton sings Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Your Song, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting or the rest of the tracks selected to tell this tale, it becomes clear that Egerton has command over character that is honestly mind-blowing.
Egerton’s mission was to capture a persona that has been on the public conscious for over five decades. It is an arc that is as rich as they come. The actor inhales John and emerges triumphantly. He nails the finer, elusive details of a persona that everyone on the planet thinks they keenly know.
Whoever undertakes this challenge has what potentially could be the most thankless of positions. The exact point where this is a successful endeavor for any actor is so razor thin. Anything less than perfection will be seen as faulty—especially given the long shadow that was recently cast by Malek as Mercury. I believe that Malek turned in the performance of his career, whereas Egerton has produced a characterization that will transcend the landscape of entertainment and become ingrained into the upper lexicon of Hollywood history.
Madden had a tough task as well. The Game of Thrones actor is tasked with delivering what is the main antagonist in music producer John Reid. He’s a character steeped in music history…he was portrayed by Aidan Gillen in Bohemian Rhapsody. The challenge for the Scottish thespian was to get under John’s skin. He is the singer’s lover and the culler of his heart who largely served as the embodiment of John’s homosexual awakening. Learning of John’s less than loving upbringing—as portrayed in Rocketman—Reid exploits our titular character’s roughed up relationship instincts. Combine that with the Tiny Dancer singer’s self-destructive behavior and it is easy to see how John’s world would implode.
Something to be saluted is that the filmmakers never shied away from John’s sexuality. In fact, they embrace it as it should be…there are even several sex scenes that are shot, edited and scored in the same manner as would someone who was capturing heterosexual relations… again, as it should be.
The musical numbers recall the best that Hollywood has to offer in that milieu. Fighting the urge to run in the aisles and dance is a real issue for those of us who are longtime appreciators of the musical mastery of Taupin and John. There’s a myriad of emotive feels achieved by the varied musical interludes … from pure rock and roll revelry to deeply personal emotional grit.
Taking a page from Mamma Mia, Rocketman (as is done by true musicals and not musical biopics) utilizes Taupin’s award-winning lyrics to move the plot needle as we bask in the glory of this exquisite journey. The hits and deeper cuts are (largely) not revealed in chronological order. The prose of those hits drives the narrative and not for one second does even the most astute musicologist holler, “Wait, that song didn’t come out until 1975, blah, blah, blah.” One never notices, as we are too lost in the glittery gorgeousness of George Richmond’s cinematography, the ensemble’s electric performances, Egerton’s vocal vibrancy and what will absolutely be referred to Fletcher’s masterpiece.
Prior to witnessing Rocketman, I wondered how the film would conclude. Bohemian Rhapsody had its Live Aid set that went down as one of the (if not the) best concert performances of all time. How does one draw the curtain on John’s life? The way that it is achieved will send the tears flowing.
Rocketman is easily one of the best pictures of the year. There is no doubt in my mind that regardless of what Hollywood sends audiences over the next six months, there will absolutely be a spot near the top of the Best of 2019. The movie also sensationally serves as a film for anyone who has ever possessed a dream. Don’t be surprised if goals that were merely written down somewhere, suddenly get an upgrade with any number of blazing neon ink colors to spur goal achievement.
Even if it doesn’t inspire you specifically, at its core, Rocketman is the most brilliant of song and dance spectaculars.
Grade: A+